The Cooler

meatball · October 27, 2003, 07:40:03 PM

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?

edison · October 27, 2003, 07:56:36 PM

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.

meatball · October 27, 2003, 08:01:44 PM

yea. what you said.

edison · October 27, 2003, 11:47:42 PM

ok, good, just checking

xerxes · October 28, 2003, 01:03:14 AM

i saw it a while ago and it wasn't very good at all

cowboykurtis · October 28, 2003, 11:43:51 AM

saw it at sundance -- sloppy film

xerxes · October 28, 2003, 02:53:52 PM

Quote from: cowboykurtissloppy film

my thoughts exactly

Ghostboy · October 31, 2003, 10:05:28 AM

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.

NEON MERCURY · October 31, 2003, 12:40:07 PM

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!!!!

..........................

TheVoiceOfNick · October 31, 2003, 02:58:10 PM

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...

TheVoiceOfNick · November 05, 2003, 11:55:23 AM

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.

TheVoiceOfNick · December 01, 2003, 03:15:47 PM

Macy's hair in this movie reminds me of David Lynch's.

pete · December 23, 2003, 07:17:43 PM

everything about it was pretty solid except some of the acting. the son in some scenes were pretty bad and the waitress was terrible.

subversiveproductions · December 25, 2003, 04:35:43 PM

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.

MacGuffin · January 18, 2004, 01:25:21 AM

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.