Two Weeks Notice

Started by Comte de Saint Germain, January 15, 2004, 08:39:20 PM

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Sleuth

Yeah, come on GT.  Stay with me, my love.
I like to hug dogs

Gold Trumpet

Addiction of any kind is tough. If this website is not available to me on easy access, I will stay away.

pete

hugh grant's lazy eyes are his secret weapon.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

MacGuffin

GT, do you think the reactions would have been different if you used your GT persona instead of your 'alter ego'?
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: MacGuffinGT, do you think the reactions would have been different if you used your GT persona instead of your 'alter ego'?

Like I said, this has been building up for a while. Also,  I do think the reactions would have been the same. I don't care for the replies that said they just didn't like the movie. That's fine. All the ones that did annoy me came from people who knew who I was.

Also, modernage, I do think Hugh Grant has a lot of range. You must remember he started his career out in Shakespearean drama and did dramas on film in the beginning of his career. Only later in his career did he develop into a comedian actor primarily. Also, his style of acting may be sly to revealing that he has range. Unlike most actors today, he doesn't follow the teachings of Stanislavsky (sp?) who developed the Actors Studio method of the actor beginning from the inside of his character and working his way out. Its easy to notice the differences in roles with this method. What Hugh Grant does is begin from the outside (mannerisms) and work his way in. I think this is much harder to detect in how they are different because mannerisms are much more jumbled in differences to each person. Also, I would agree Hugh Grant has a general personality to him that is appealing to many people. I'd call this his signature.

modage

In Two Weeks Notice I always felt like I was watching the product of a director and his actors.  It's almost like they found a script, decided to produce it, and when the sets were built, the actors would recite the lines from memory as they were being filmed.  It seems like the characters in the film were only there to further the story.  And conversely the story was only there as a platform for the characters to play out their idiosyncracies.  
   
It's like Woody Allen said, "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television."  But in this case, it felt as if I was watching a bad sitcom sans the laugh track, only with better production values, rather than something that resembled real life.  Hugh Grant is an actor who gets paid to act, and the same could be said of Sandra Bullock.  Charlie Chaplin once said "All I need to make comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl."  And I feel like as formulaic as this film was, maybe it should've been boiled down to it's essential elements to find the true comedy in every situation, rather than something so scripted.  
   
When George Wade says in the film "Is this belt tacky or beltacular?" only the words of noted critic Stanley Kauffman came to mind, "This is the worst moment in the film," and it truely was.  Also, the ending of the film was just a way of saying 'the movies over, here are a list of the people who made it', like most movies, which was a real turn-off.  When the lights came up after the film was over, I almost felt like walking out.  I think noted critic Andrew Sarris said it best "I think [film's] an emotional medium, above all," and the main emotion I felt throughout Two Weeks Notice was nausea.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: themodernage02Charlie Chaplin once said "All I need to make comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl."  And I feel like as formulaic as this film was, maybe it should've been boiled down to it's essential elements to find the true comedy in every situation, rather than something so scripted.

Getting past modern day advances in the romantic comedy department from Chaplin to now, I really didn't feel the weight of the film getting away from the essentials of romantic comedy. The movie was directly focused on the two leading actors and the chemistry between them. Being so scripted....I guess you noticed it as that while I didn't. I'll agree some lines were dumb like the example you gave said, "Is this belt tacky of beltacular?", but the charm and appeal of this movie is the presence of Hugh Grant running around in almost every single scene of romantic comedy distress with Sandra Bullock and him being able to interact to all of it. I did call this "the best vehicle for Hugh Grant yet..." so I'm not putting that much greatness on the film as a film. The writing was good enough not to spoil Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock kept up.

Quote from: themodernage02When George Wade says in the film "Is this belt tacky or beltacular?" only the words of noted critic Stanley Kauffman came to mind, "This is the worst moment in the film," and it truely was.

I just did a quick check of Kauffmann reviewing Hugh Grant films and this film doesn't appear as one he reviewed so I don't know where you got that from.

Pubrick

it was never any secret that CSG was u, if u think back u'll remember that u announced him as ur new username cos GT was banned for a while as a joke, back in the day. i'm sorry u had to single out my comment out of the whole page full of others which didn't take u seriously. i should've elaborated that i hav no problem with the hugh grant praise, i also think he is charming, but to say that he has any more "range" than scarlett is undefendable. and anyway, this has nothing to do with that, i was just pointing out the irony of the situation, which u once again took wayyyyyyyyyy too far. also i thought it was funny that u randomly brought back CSG to talk about hugh grant.

dude, no one wants u to leave. believe it or not, despite ur handiclap in english, ppl actually like reading what u hav to say. me included. and what's this about me not discussing anything? that's not true at all. i just keep my points concise and easy to read.
under the paving stones.

Duck Sauce


pookiethecat

gt, what you say about hugh makes sense.  you've definitely made me want to see 2 weeks notice.  it seemed kind of slight and cutesy.  but i remember how quickly my preconceived notions were destroyed when i was charmed by both about a boy and miss congeniality, movies of what appears to be the same vein.  i'll give it a try.  dont give up on xixax
i wanna lick 'em.

molly

grant is interesting when he's playing bad guys now. I think we've seen all possible variations of confused guys.

soixante

Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock are the Tracy and Hepburn of our age.  A great romantic comedy team.  I especially enjoyed the scene when Bullock had to go really badly while they were stuck on the bridge.  It was the best scene of its kind since Buffalo 66, when Vincent Gallo had to retain his water for a long bus ride.
Music is your best entertainment value.

modage

how can they be the tracy/hepburn if they've only made one movie together?  and they're not having an affair in real life?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.