Taking Stock of "Taking Woodstock"
Last night my daughter and I went to the preview for Taking Woodstock, a "comedy" directed by Ang Lee, starring Dimitri Martin (who?), Eugene Levy, Imelda Staunton, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, etc. The movie was based on the novel of the same name by Elliot Tiber.
I was 13 years old for most of 1969. I remember the mid 60's to the early 70's as being one of the best times in my life for music. Was ANY of that music of the day in this movie? NO! Except for about 60 seconds of Hendrix's guitar, I didn't recognize or care to remember ANY of the music of the movie. And the acting? Couldn't they find a REAL actor with acting skills to play Elliot? Imelda Staunton's character was so vile, evil, wicked, loathsome, filthy and greedy, I couldn't stand when she was on screen. Eugene Levy played Max Yasgur and he was on screen for about 5 minutes total. There went the so-called "comedy." And he wasn't funny. Not at all. Jeffrey Dean Morgan played a self-loathing homosexual. Need I say more? Oh, yes, I do! The full-frontal nudity throughout was unnecessary and gross. Do I really want to see tallywhackers and boobies bobbing about while their owners frolic through grass and the lake? I think not. Even the 'psychedelic' scene was LAME.
Across the Universe was so much better and I didn't love that movie.
Don't waste your money or time.
Last night my daughter and I went to the preview for Taking Woodstock, a "comedy" directed by Ang Lee, starring Dimitri Martin (who?), Eugene Levy, Imelda Staunton, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, etc. The movie was based on the novel of the same name by Elliot Tiber.
I was 13 years old for most of 1969. I remember the mid 60's to the early 70's as being one of the best times in my life for music. Was ANY of that music of the day in this movie? NO! Except for about 60 seconds of Hendrix's guitar, I didn't recognize or care to remember ANY of the music of the movie. And the acting? Couldn't they find a REAL actor with acting skills to play Elliot? Imelda Staunton's character was so vile, evil, wicked, loathsome, filthy and greedy, I couldn't stand when she was on screen. Eugene Levy played Max Yasgur and he was on screen for about 5 minutes total. There went the so-called "comedy." And he wasn't funny. Not at all. Jeffrey Dean Morgan played a self-loathing homosexual. Need I say more? Oh, yes, I do! The full-frontal nudity throughout was unnecessary and gross. Do I really want to see tallywhackers and boobies bobbing about while their owners frolic through grass and the lake? I think not. Even the 'psychedelic' scene was LAME.
Across the Universe was so much better and I didn't love that movie.
Don't waste your money or time.
3 comments:
I hadn't heard of this movie - and IMDb has almost nothing about it. I found this on Wikipedia:
"The film, based upon the book of the same name, follows the true life story of a closeted gay man hiding his orientation from his family, through the Stonewall Riots in New York City, which is seen by many as having started the modern Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender movement, through one of the defining counter-culture events of the generation. This man was Elliot Tiber, an aspiring Greenwich Village interior designer whose parents owned a small motel in Upstate New York and at the time held the only musical festival permit in the entire town of Bethel, New York. Tiber offered both the motel and the permit to the Woodstock Festival's organizers."
Didn't the director also do Brokeback Mountain?
Bill - Yes, Ang Lee did Brokeback Mountain, and The Incredible Hulk, and many others. This movie was just so amateur, so flat and everything 1969 was not. It was disappointing to see Woodstock and all it represented become another Hollywood casualty. Other than the drug-addicted, Viet Nam vet "Billy Hawkins" played by Emile Hirsch, not one character was likable.
And that Wiki description is not remotely related to the movie other than Elliot, as the president of the chamber of commerce of Bethel, pulled a permit for a concert, which he offered to the Woodstock promoters after they were kicked out of Wallkill, NY.
Why in the hell do film makers think that we all want to see nudity in films the last few years? Particularly, that we want to see genitals? If I have to be subjected to seeing one more penis in a film I'm going to stop going to the movies all together. In the last few years there's a sick obsession with showing male genitalia in movies, and it's disgusting and unwanted.
I don't know one woman that goes to a movie hoping to see male genitalia.
Why can't directors make good movies anymore? All they do anymore is just try to gross everyone out.
I'm neither old or a prude. But there are some things that we just don't need to see in movies!
Caitlyn
Post a Comment