www.thecoolermovie.com
I think this'll be a great movie!
What's this strange gambling trend among actors who have worked with PTA? Phil Hoffman with Owning Mahoney. And John Reilly and Phil Baker with Hard Eight. Am I missing any others?
doesnt your question suggest a post-PTA movie involving gambling? Because if thats how you mean it then the example of Hard Eight doesnt count because that is a PTA flick.
yea. what you said.
ok, good, just checking
i saw it a while ago and it wasn't very good at all
saw it at sundance -- sloppy film
Quote from: cowboykurtissloppy film
my thoughts exactly
I saw this last night and I really liked it. I agree that it was sloppy, and there are two scenes in particular (one which is a COMPLETE rip off of Hoffman's scene in Hard Eight) that keep it from being great, but it was high enough on its own oddball energy to keep me engaged. It's really sweet natured and romantic, but that's meted by some pretty brutal violence and lots of unflattering nudity. I felt the contrast worked, and it leaves the film feeling pretty unique.
There are a lot of touches that may or may not be 'lifted' from PTA, and after it was over I realized how similar the film was to 'True Romance,' but while I was watching it, I didn't feel like it was a retread of things I'd seen before. I'd recommend it.
And if you've ever thought to yourself "You know, William H Macy is really cool, but I wonder what his balls look like...."
...well, look no further.
Quote from: Ghostboy
And if you've ever thought to yourself "You know, William H Macy is really cool, but I wonder what his balls look like...."
...well, look no further.
....allright!!!! :yabbse-tongue: .......................... :wink:
I'm going to a preview of this Tuesday night... I have really liked Macy's roles in the past... most all of them... so i'm sure if Macy is being Macy, i'll be fine with it... :)
I just saw this last night, and I must admit it was quite interesting. Reactions were mixed within my group of friends that saw it, but I thought the movie had real merit.
Macy of course plays a guy down on his luck, a loser of sorts... not a new role for him. If anyone hasn't seen the trailer, the movie is about Macy's character being a "cooler"... the guy at casinos that brings bad luck to gamblers on hot streaks. He plays this character dead on, although I found out at the panel discussion afterwards that this role was written specifically for him. The supporting cast also played their roles magnificently. Alec Baldwin plays the casino boss nearing the end of his career. Maria Bello plays the dead-end-job waitress that finds romance with Macy's character. Ron Livingston plays the Harvard hotshot MBA that wants to change things around in the casino.
The film was heavy in sexuality, including lots of "gratuitous" nude shots of Macy and Bello. The editor said that to achieve the R rating rather than the NC-17 rating, they had to cut out 1.5 seconds of pubic hair from a scene.
The story fluxuates between being very tight and very loose. The main story seems very tight, with Macy's character being down on himself and having a need to get out of the slump in his life. There are a series of sub plots that involve other characters, but all of these sub plots are there strictly to tell us more about our character's past. These sub plots suffer a bit from becoming non-important in the later parts of the movie; it's almost like the sub plots just ended while the story was begining to get interesting.
The cinematography in this movie is simply gorgeous. The cinematographer, Jim Whitaker, was going for a very noir-ish feel to the movie, using a lot of bright practical lighting in the casino scenes, giving the characters a spooky, washed out look. There are a couple of stedi-cam shots that are very reminiscent of the opening scene of Boogie Nights, and the overall camera work in the movie is simply excellent.
Although this movie had some cheesy moments, the characters were very strong, and the main story really pushed the movie forward. If you're not bothered by heavy sexuality, and some intense violence, then I reccommend you go see this movie.
Macy's hair in this movie reminds me of David Lynch's.
everything about it was pretty solid except some of the acting. the son in some scenes were pretty bad and the waitress was terrible.
this movie was great. great great great. not too ambitious, not too pretentious, just lovely and fun sometimes and sad sometimes and generally touching and charming all at the same time.
I had mixed reactions to this movie. I really liked the Macy and Baldwin characters, and both actors really became these parts. But I felt I was one step ahead of the characters and the movie. I could see the story twists coming and knew what was going to happen. But there were some very choice pieces of dialogue and was, at times, funny.
All in all I think the movie worked really well. Most of the big plot twists were awfully predictable, and Shaun Hatsoy's performance was pretty over the top, but Macy and Baldwin were fucking fantastic. I don't think the subplots, as someone said earlier, were all there to simply provide exposistion about Macy's past. Much of it was for the sake of Baldwin's character, and his hatred for the rise of disneyland vegas. It's a great character piece, and the cinematography was great. Fuji is great for greens a purples.
Lion's Gate Home Entertainment will release the critically acclaimed drama The Cooler on April 27th. This Oscar hopeful, which stars Alec Baldwin, Ron Livingston and SAG nominee Maria Bello, comes complete with an anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track, plus two cast and crew audio commentaries, the "Anatomy of a Scene" TV special, deleted scenes plus an alternate ending in script form, storyboards, a short film by director Wayne Kramer, and trailers. Retail will be $26.95.
I saw it Saturday and I liked it. I loved how "realistic" it was, in the use of sex and violence. I did feel some nostalgia during that one scene when the crapper (crap-shooter) was insulting the old man....except it obviously wasn't quite as good as the scene in Hard Eight. Anyway, for a first film, I though it was very nice....perhaps that Wayne Kramer guy will be an interesting film-maker later on.
Saw this film tonight. I had some problems with it, so I'm torn in ways. At times I thought it was incredibly cheesy, and others I felt it may know it's cheesy and be poking fun of itself. I wasn't quite sure, and the ending didn't help any as I wasn't sure if it was sincere or not. The dialogue didn't help either, as it could've been either "satirical" bad or "just plain" bad. I loved the noirish feel of the film, and I loved the setting. I love films set in casinos, period. The score was amazing. (By the way, does anyone know the name of the song playing over the ending credits?) Agreed about the Hard Eight rip-off, and the whole sexuality thing. It was refreshing albeit gratuitous. A generous ***½ (8/10). The dialogue brings the film down, but Macy's and Baldwin's performances bring it right back up again. And wasn't it the weirdest thing seeing Paul Sorvino and Joey Fatone in this film?
but hard eight was very very much a bob le flemeur ripoff.
Quote from: petebut hard eight was very very much a bob le flemeur ripoff.
Mixed with a whole lotta 'Atlantic City.'
Quote from: petebut hard eight was very very much a bob le flemeur ripoff.
No, PTA is respected, so it's an homage.
Quote from: MacGuffinQuote from: petebut hard eight was very very much a bob le flemeur ripoff.
No, PTA is respected, so it's an homage.
haha, i was so getting to that...
"PTA respected."
It's funny because it's true
The Hard Eight rip-off scene would have been brilliant (and had a better payoff than Hard Eight), except for the fact that they had joe-no-name terrible fucking actor instead of brilliant PSH. But at any rate...
Good movie. Really good first film. If PTA's career was any indication, Kramer could make a brilliant second film. Baldwin's speech about Vegas as a high priced call girl who turned into a fat whore had me laughing out loud. But the dialogue of the year was spoken by Ron Livingston:
"The cocktail waitresses could pop a button or two. Me personally, I wouldn't hire anything less than a c-cup."
I agree about the son being a shit actor as well. Oh, but Estella Warren was great. Y'know what they say, everyone can play themselves, and she did a great coke slut. That "kicking the baby" scene was tops, imo. You've never seen horror on audience's faces like this, until they did the reveal. It was classic.
It must be the sign of a good director, to have such a contrived and goofy ending, and yet make it work so perfectly because of previous set-ups.
Quote from: CinephileLion's Gate Home Entertainment will release the critically acclaimed drama The Cooler on April 27th. This Oscar hopeful, which stars Alec Baldwin, Ron Livingston and SAG nominee Maria Bello, comes complete with an anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track, plus two cast and crew audio commentaries, the "Anatomy of a Scene" TV special, deleted scenes plus an alternate ending in script form, storyboards, a short film by director Wayne Kramer, and trailers. Retail will be $26.95.
Original DVD Cover Art:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedigitalbits.com%2Farticles%2Fupcomingdvdart%2F0427%2Fcoolerdvd.jpg&hash=8bd4032db638fdbdd1254f8c7e422979afe7b8b4)
New Revised Cover Art:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.angelfire.com%2Ffilm%2Fmacguffin0%2Fthecoolerr1artwrorevpic.jpg&hash=c68f421c8419d1c2a878db337a09d80d6cb0da89)
hey, slightly less bad!
I'm looking forward to this April purchase.
they should have gone with the cover of macy's face made into the NEON lights....(theatrical poster. i think)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB00005JME6.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg&hash=236f426e482755805dd0112fc3927c861d45b9e3)
Quote from: NEON MERCURYthey should have gone with the cover of macy's face made into the NEON lights....(theatrical poster. i think)
They never go with the cover art when they really should
Just saw this.. I was let down by the story, big time. I love the acting of the main roles, but everyone else sucked hard. The story was just was too unbelievable, and that alone overshadowed the movie for me.
Paul Walker is Running Scared for Kramer
Source: Variety
Variety reports that Media 8 Entertainment (Monster) has teamed with filmmaker Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) to finance his next film, Running Scared. Paul Walker is in talks to star in the film, expected to start shooting in May.
The gritty action thriller takes place over the course of one night and concerns two 10-year-old boys who get their hands on a mob gun with which a cop was shot. The father of one of the boys (Walker) must take to the streets in a desperate bid to recover the weapon before the mob finds out it's missing.
Media 8 will handle worldwide distribution rights on the film.
As cool as that sounds, I don't know about Paul Walker. I guess this is his attempt to become a serious actor or something.
I finally got to see this at the Crossroads Film Festival tonight. I really enjoyed it. All three performances were excellent, the story was strong with good metaphors and it really captured Vegas as it is. And yes...they must have ripped off Hard Eight at least twice. But it was interesting to watch.
Saw this last night on dvd and didn't think it was that good. I thought the story was messy. There was the theme of a dying Vegas which was the pure Vegas (filled with corruption). I thought Casino addressed that brilliantly alreadt. And then you had the down and out loser ex-gambler turned cooler who had horrible luck until he falls in love. Just seemed unoriginal and couldn't find it's own identity in the sub-genre of gambling/casino films. Positives were of course the good performances by Macy and the underrated performance of Baldwin. All in all I'd give it a 2.5/4 stars.
the good-
>bello, macy, bello nude, the music......, nice casino vibes
the bad-
>the stupid and ridiculous ending....
the ugly-
>macy nude... :(
anyone listened to the commentary tracks yet? if so, any good?
Quote from: jasper_windowanyone listened to the commentary tracks yet? if so, any good?
The director, writer and cinematographer one was pretty good. Definitely more technical (in terms of composition shots, working on a low budget, production problems, working with Macy and Baldwin, etc.) than the average commentary track. Some comments are too self-congratulatory (many "I love this shot" comments and "This is Isham's best score"), but worth a listen. Haven't listened to the director/composer track yet.
Quote from: MacGuffinQuote from: jasper_windowanyone listened to the commentary tracks yet? if so, any good?
The director, writer and cinematographer one was pretty good. Definitely more technical (in terms of composition shots, working on a low budget, production problems, working with Macy and Baldwin, etc.) than the average commentary track. Some comments are too self-congratulatory (many "I love this shot" comments and "This is Isham's best score"), but worth a listen. Haven't listened to the director/composer track yet.
Thanks.
I saw it on Sunday. I thought it had elements of a good film, but overall I thought the 'luck' thing was way overused (especially towards the end) to the point that it felt quite ridiculous.
Not a bad film, but far from great, which it could have been had the script been a little more pollished.