Ridley Scott's Good, Bad and Ugly (Second period)

[Gabriel Girard]

Your turn!

[cdouglas]

Good: Matchstick Men - This one isn't necessarily the greatest of Scott's post-G.I. Jane career, but it's one which I'm very fond of and which deserves a lot more praise than it gets. A smart, heartfelt flick which shows off a side of Scott's talent we've seen too little of.

Bad: Robin Hood - I really, really want to like this movie, because there are certainly some terrific elements and (as ever with Scott) it looks fantastic. However, both times I've seen I've left somewhat frustrated with just how many things it gets wrong.

Ugly: Since I need to rewatch Body of Lies (I was underwhelmed the first time, but have heard enough praise that I've been convinced to give it another go), I'll pick A Good Year for this one. It's really not as awful as a lot of people act like it is, but both Crowe and Scott are clearly working well outside their respective comfort zones.

[Gabriel Girard]

Good: Matchstick Men - This one isn't necessarily the greatest of Scott's post-G.I. Jane career, but it's one which I'm very fond of and which deserves a lot more praise than it gets. A smart, heartfelt flick which shows off a side of Scott's talent we've seen too little of.

I fwwl the samw way. I almost picked it for my good but I enjoyed American Gangster too much not to talk about it.

[Mitchell Hattaway]

Good: the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven

Bad: A Good Year

Ugly: Hannibal

[Steve T Power]

Good: the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven

Bad: A Good Year

Ugly: Hannibal

Copycat...

[Mitchell Hattaway]

Good: the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven

Bad: A Good Year

Ugly: Hannibal

Copycat...

Hey, wait a minute...

[Steve T Power]

Good: the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven

Bad: A Good Year

Ugly: Hannibal

Copycat...

Hey, wait a minute...

Quiet you...

[Mach6]

Good: It’s a close battle between Black Hawk Down & American Gangster but I have to give it to American Gangster. The dialogue, the look of 70’s New York, & three knock’em out of the ballpark performances in Crowe, Washington, & Brolin. Who doesn’t love that scene where Frank shows the difference between being a “somebody” and a “nobody”?

Bad: Prometheus. I saw it in normal 2D & the visuals & effects were still incredible (except for Guy Pearce’s Highlander 2 old man makeup). Ridley’s ambition is there. However, he can only do so much with such a mess of a script. Sorry Steve, but I disagree that 25 years from now Prometheus will be remembered as fondly as Alien. Alien had a great cast of characters that had the group chemistry down pat. Outside of Fassbender’s David, nobody else really made a lasting impression on me. I just think Prometheus could’ve been great with a tighter script that had fewer characters & fleshed out the main ones better.

Ugly: I agree with the Canucks about Hannibal. It starts out well but all the Ray Liotta stuff in the second half just sinks it. The material just seems so beneath Ridley. (Especially, the final scene with Hannibal sharing his, uh, special meal with the passenger sitting next to him. Really lame gross-out humor.)

For the record, I haven’t seen Matchstick Men, A Good Year, or The Kingdom of Heaven DC.

[mavrach]

Instead of "Second Period," you should call this "The Russell Crowe Years."

GOOD: Gladiator - Call it flawed, but this is everything I ask for in an epic. This makes me feel like I'm living in Rome, and you live the lifestyle of a general, a gladiator and an emperor. The action sequences make me want to pick up a short sword, and this may be the best score Hans Zimmer ever did. I saw the Director's Cut of this once and felt that the pacing was off, so I'll prefer the Theatrical Cut.

BAD: Prometheus - I left the theater feeling like a million bucks, but the more I thnk about the plot, the more doubts I have. So far it's good, but it's raised a risky amount of new questions, and if they're not answered by a sequel (and a good sequel at that), and said sequel doesn't just ask more questions, this will be a very frustrating movie. Since one of the Lost writers is involved, this worries me.

UGLY - Robin Hood - I thought the characters never came into their own the way they should have. At best this should've been Batman Begins for the Robin Hood legend, which in itself is troubling because I'd be comparing it to another movie the whole time. Instead we get an epic that doesn't have enough flavor, and the ties to the Robin Hood mythology feel loose. Robin lands with two men, the guy with red hair happens to be named Will Scarlet and the vaguely large fellow is called Little John. I never got the feeling that anybody was the same person from the mythology. I kept yearning for the Kevin Reynolds version. It's just bad if I want to keep comparing this to other movies. The original synopsis of Robin & the Sherrif being the same person gives me chills thinking out it; it's a shame that never happened because that would've been a unique twist brought to the table by this entry.

[BrettCullum]

I am gonna break with your arbitrary division of his career at GI JANE. For me the easiest way to look at Ridley's best films is by decade:

70s - ALIEN
80s - BLADE RUNNER
90s - THELMA & LOUISE
00s - GLADIATOR
10s - only be default PROMETHEUS (until something better comes along)

I think what amazes me is like David Lynch, even Sir Scott's failures are more interesting than most people's best attempts. Ridley remains one of my favorite filmmakers ever. Odd that you kind of married him in back to back episodes so close to Cronenberg who is another director I feel the same way about. I would be hard pressed to pick a bad or an ugly, because I don't think he is capable of making an ugly film.

In regards to HANNIBAL. The book really set the stage for this one, and Harris gave very little to work with. I do wish Ridley Scott had gotten Foster to get onboard and do it with the original ending of Clarice disappearing with the serial killer. Then he could have just gone for broke with the darkness. But I think the studio demanded a happier ending that crushed everything, and begged for something commercial in tone and execution. And the eating your own brain bit came straight from the novel. I blame the book and the studio here... people were too scared to unleash a real beast.

[BrettCullum]

... but let's keep in mind my tops in good for Cronenberg would be CRASH, so I am your grain of salt kind of guy.

[Steve T Power]

... but let's keep in mind my tops in good for Cronenberg would be CRASH, so I am your grain of salt kind of guy.

I honestly think if Hannibal had ended with a slowmo shot of Hannibal cradling the unconscious agent Starling, mask still in place, strolling out of Verger's pig pen then fade to black - it would have been a pretty stunning (if slightly head scratching) piece of work.

[Gabriel Girard]

... but let's keep in mind my tops in good for Cronenberg would be CRASH, so I am your grain of salt kind of guy.

Crash is a film I admire more than I like. It's beautifully filmed, it creates an interesting atmosphere and it's a pretty close adaptation of the novel. But I can't connect to it, I admire its artistry but I can't ''enjoy'' the film. Dead Ringers on the other hand...

[mavrach]

One funny thing about A Good Year - whenever we pass a cyclist on the road all we can think is "LANCE ARMSTRONG!!"

[Steve T Power]

One funny thing about A Good Year - whenever we pass a cyclist on the road all we can think is "LANCE ARMSTRONG!!"

Hah! +1

[Attrage]

Instead of "Second Period," you should call this "The Russell Crowe Years."

GOOD: Gladiator - Call it flawed, but this is everything I ask for in an epic. This makes me feel like I'm living in Rome, and you live the lifestyle of a general, a gladiator and an emperor. The action sequences make me want to pick up a short sword, and this may be the best score Hans Zimmer ever did. I saw the Director's Cut of this once and felt that the pacing was off, so I'll prefer the Theatrical Cut.

Sorry to be finicky, but Ridley Scott explains in the introduction to the "extended" version of Gladiator that the 171 minute version is NOT the director's cut, the true "director's cut" was the one that was released theatrically.

And for the record I'm way too biased a Ridley Scott fan to call anything he has ever made "Ugly" so I won't chime in on this thread

[mavrach]

Instead of "Second Period," you should call this "The Russell Crowe Years."

GOOD: Gladiator - Call it flawed, but this is everything I ask for in an epic. This makes me feel like I'm living in Rome, and you live the lifestyle of a general, a gladiator and an emperor. The action sequences make me want to pick up a short sword, and this may be the best score Hans Zimmer ever did. I saw the Director's Cut of this once and felt that the pacing was off, so I'll prefer the Theatrical Cut.

Sorry to be finicky, but Ridley Scott explains in the introduction to the "extended" version of Gladiator that the 171 minute version is NOT the director's cut, the true "director's cut" was the one that was released theatrically.

And for the record I'm way too biased a Ridley Scott fan to call anything he has ever made "Ugly" so I won't chime in on this thread

It's all good. You're right that's the Extended Cut, not his cut. So I agree with him too

[Attrage]

Instead of "Second Period," you should call this "The Russell Crowe Years."

GOOD: Gladiator - Call it flawed, but this is everything I ask for in an epic. This makes me feel like I'm living in Rome, and you live the lifestyle of a general, a gladiator and an emperor. The action sequences make me want to pick up a short sword, and this may be the best score Hans Zimmer ever did. I saw the Director's Cut of this once and felt that the pacing was off, so I'll prefer the Theatrical Cut.

Sorry to be finicky, but Ridley Scott explains in the introduction to the "extended" version of Gladiator that the 171 minute version is NOT the director's cut, the true "director's cut" was the one that was released theatrically.

And for the record I'm way too biased a Ridley Scott fan to call anything he has ever made "Ugly" so I won't chime in on this thread

It's all good. You're right that's the Extended Cut, not his cut. So I agree with him too

I agree with you, though it was nice to see the extra footage (particularly the added scene of Commodus attacking the sculpture of his father) the theatrical version's pacing is better. I did wonder when I bought the "extended" edition why it wasn't called a Director's Cut, so the Ridley Scott introduction was very interesting. I like that he got the opportunity to make it clear that the added scenes were just "worth seeing", but weren't part of the version he is most happy with.

[BrettCullum]

I recently heard in an interview with Sir Ridley that an extended cut of PROMETHEUS is already in the works...
I believe this has become standard operating procedure for him.

[Steve T Power]

I recently heard in an interview with Sir Ridley that an extended cut of PROMETHEUS is already in the works...
I believe this has become standard operating procedure for him.

Last I'd heard was that the theatrical cut was his preferred cut, and he wasn't sure if the blu-ray would have the extra material in a "deleted scenes" section or if he'd cut it into the film.

I hope it's the latter.

[cdouglas]

I recently heard in an interview with Sir Ridley that an extended cut of PROMETHEUS is already in the works...
I believe this has become standard operating procedure for him.

Last I'd heard was that the theatrical cut was his preferred cut, and he wasn't sure if the blu-ray would have the extra material in a "deleted scenes" section or if he'd cut it into the film.

I hope it's the latter.

Looks like the initial Blu-ray release will include the theatrical version plus about 15 minutes of deleted scenes (along with the usual hours and hours of making-of docs and featurettes).

[BrettCullum]

Last time I heard Sir Ridley speak he said it would not be the initial release, but he would like to possibly release a longer cut down the line. It was from an interview on BBC with Mark Kermode right as PROMETHEUS was released. He tells us "never to say never" even though he seemed quite satisfied with the final cut of the film for theatrical release.