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dustykrane
Reviews
Blind Spot (2002)
Way Cool
James Franco is totally cool in this movie. Not just handsome and charismatic but genuinely open and vulnerable in a sincere kind of way. At the Tristan screening some folks were on his back for being pouty and sullen and doing the whole James Dean thing but I don't think this true. Blind Spot is proof positive of his tremendous talent. In this film he carries himself with a different sort of weight entirely. It's a unique performance. Bittersweet and really moving. The lines from his journal cut you like a knife. You sense a sharp intelligence of observation behind his words. The tone is everything. He carries it through the action and suspense as well as the grim bits of gallows humor. I like the other two actors a great deal too. The blonde girl is totally gorgeous and the man is hysterical in his twisted tough guy stoicism. Some of the thugs seemed a little sketchy but this is a mini-point really. The film is totally solid and Franco is way cool all around.
Tristan + Isolde (2006)
Pretty solid
This movie was pretty fine. Yeah it is a bit dated and tired in it's old fashioned love story approach but it is well made. And uh duh it is based on a very old and famous epic tale of love (that was even made into an opera). So maybe it is supposed to have that energy? The point is that Sophia Myles and James Franco did an amazing job. You absolutely believed that they were living in that time period. I enjoyed the way the meet on the beach and that she takes care of him but hides the fact that she is royalty. The war action that happens is just adequate. And while the whole star-crossed lover thing feels very Romeo and Juliet (minus Baz Luhrman's stellar style and energy of course) the movie does resolve quite nicely. Overall I would have to say that the filmmakers did a solid job.