Coppermine wrote:Well, she was in Crash last year, which, in case you forgot, won best picture.
It was also her best performance in my opinion... "Speed" was fun and jumpstarted her career, but that led to a bunch of crappy romantic comedies. I think she's much better suited to secondary roles like she had in Crash than as the primary love interest of Hugh Grant in like 5 movies.
i thought "while you were sleeping" was her first big break.
anyway, crash was a horrible best picture winner. i can't believe brokeback mountain did not win.
A couple notes...
"While You Were Sleeping" came out a year after "Speed" as a direct result of her success in the film. I don't know if you recall, but Speed was a HUGE movie, not only jumpstarting the career of Bullock, but also marking the resurgence of Dennis Hopper (who had previously been blacklisted from Hollywood, literally, since the Cold War). Speed, interestingly, was Hoppers most successfuly film financially in his career, even more so than "Easy Rider," the film that defined him as an actor. It also was the springboard for his role in the extremely overhyped "Waterworld."
Keanu of course went on to do the Matrix trilogy as Neo, a role he perhaps would never have landed if not for "Speed" (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure probably wasn't quite enough).
I saw both Crash and Brokeback Mountain; both were excellent movies and both very controversial... basically it was certainly between the two (although I thought Sideways was a masterpiece in its own right). Choose the racially sensitive film or the gay one... Hollywood played it safe, but have you seen Crash? It was, in my opinion, fantastic.
hmm, you're right. i thought While You Were Sleeping came out before, but i guess i was remembering wrong. then yeah, Speed is undeniably the vehicle that jump started bullock's career.
Sideways is an excellent film.
oh don't worry, i saw Crash. it was basically filled with one-note caricatures (except Matt Dillon's character) instead of human beings. very unrealistic. it's like they thought of the goal that they wanted the film to serve first, then came up with a story that would best achieve that purpose.
if they had come up with a good story itself, it would've affected people plenty enough on its own.
I liked Crash specifically because of its inherent tone; not because of its characterization; I agree Matt Dillon's character was the only standout, and I found that refreshing given the fact that I consider both Bullock and Brendan Frasier sub-par actors. Phillippe is obviouslay nothing to get excited about either. What mad the film great was not the characterization but the complexity of the plot. I thought it was eye-opening and compelling as a film, if not slightly unrealistic as you said, but certainly less so than the vast majority of films.
Generally speaking I agree with your sentiment Laean, but considering its competition, I was not disappointed with the Academy's choice.
If you're a battery, you're either working or you're dead....
Coppermine wrote:Well, she was in Crash last year, which, in case you forgot, won best picture.
It was also her best performance in my opinion... "Speed" was fun and jumpstarted her career, but that led to a bunch of crappy romantic comedies. I think she's much better suited to secondary roles like she had in Crash than as the primary love interest of Hugh Grant in like 5 movies.
i thought "while you were sleeping" was her first big break.
anyway, crash was a horrible best picture winner. i can't believe brokeback mountain did not win.
A couple notes...
"While You Were Sleeping" came out a year after "Speed" as a direct result of her success in the film. I don't know if you recall, but Speed was a HUGE movie, not only jumpstarting the career of Bullock, but also marking the resurgence of Dennis Hopper (who had previously been blacklisted from Hollywood, literally, since the Cold War). Speed, interestingly, was Hoppers most successfuly film financially in his career, even more so than "Easy Rider," the film that defined him as an actor. It also was the springboard for his role in the extremely overhyped "Waterworld."
Keanu of course went on to do the Matrix trilogy as Neo, a role he perhaps would never have landed if not for "Speed" (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure probably wasn't quite enough).
I saw both Crash and Brokeback Mountain; both were excellent movies and both very controversial... basically it was certainly between the two (although I thought Sideways was a masterpiece in its own right). Choose the racially sensitive film or the gay one... Hollywood played it safe, but have you seen Crash? It was, in my opinion, fantastic.
hmm, you're right. i thought While You Were Sleeping came out before, but i guess i was remembering wrong. then yeah, Speed is undeniably the vehicle that jump started bullock's career.
Sideways is an excellent film.
oh don't worry, i saw Crash. it was basically filled with one-note caricatures (except Matt Dillon's character) instead of human beings. very unrealistic. it's like they thought of the goal that they wanted the film to serve first, then came up with a story that would best achieve that purpose.
if they had come up with a good story itself, it would've affected people plenty enough on its own.
I liked Crash specifically because of its inherent tone; not because of its characterization; I agree Matt Dillon's character was the only standout, and I found that refreshing given the fact that I consider both Bullock and Brendan Frasier sub-par actors. Phillippe is obviouslay nothing to get excited about either. What mad the film great was not the characterization but the complexity of the plot. I thought it was eye-opening and compelling as a film, if not slightly unrealistic as you said, but certainly less so than the vast majority of films.
Generally speaking I agree with your sentiment Laean, but considering its competition, I was not disappointed with the Academy's choice.
to each his own i guess.
but i will point out 3 specific things:
1. that scene where the asian woman hits someone else's car with her own car, and says "everybody knows mexicans can't drive" or something, right to a cop, uh yeah. i know the movie is about racism, but that's just a little bit too forced on the audience.
2. the scene where the korean man is actually smuggling illegal immigrants into US (the ones in the white van) ... koreans don't really do that. don't get me wrong, they do a lot of other bad things, but that's not one of them.
3. the part where she's running around the hospital yelling out her husband's full name (first name then last name) is stupid. koreans do not speak like that.
basically, for a film that's trying to be all about accepting each other and fighting ignorance, the movie itself was pretty ignorant, and did a piss poor job at researching its own subjects.
i happened to notice these particular absurdities since i come from a korean american backgound, but i'm sure if you talked with an african-american or a latino or a caucasian or a persian or etc, they'd notice things about their own culture that the movie grossly exaggerated or completely misrepresented as well.
Coppermine wrote:Well, she was in Crash last year, which, in case you forgot, won best picture.
It was also her best performance in my opinion... "Speed" was fun and jumpstarted her career, but that led to a bunch of crappy romantic comedies. I think she's much better suited to secondary roles like she had in Crash than as the primary love interest of Hugh Grant in like 5 movies.
i thought "while you were sleeping" was her first big break.
anyway, crash was a horrible best picture winner. i can't believe brokeback mountain did not win.
Speed was her big break. She got paid penny's for that movie.
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by Coppermine » Sun Sep 17, 2006 3:13 am 
