This is topic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Tom Sauter (Member # 616) on 12-29-2000, 08:09 AM:
Too cool. This was one of the best films of
the year. It has it all: conflict, action
characters with substance, kung-fu, scenery,
humor, and insight. Did I mention kung-fu?
I saw this movie with a kung-fu nut friend
of mine and our dates, and everyone had a
good time. Seeing it on opening night in a
1940s house with 1000 other people added to
the experience.
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 12-29-2000, 12:34 PM:
I saw this film twice at the Telluride Film Festival and loved it. Sony thinks it should get a commercial release. They think they are going to break the record for a forien release. So as a result, I don't get to play it at my theatre. Damn! They are marketing it as a kung-fu film even though it is as much a pair of love stories as it is a fight film. It did quite will in San Francisco this week. It was number two behind Cast Away.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-29-2000, 09:07 PM:
I will third the recommendation for this. I enjoyed it tonight (along with about 500 others in a 700-seat theatre...not bad!).
I will give this film a great deal of credit for having a cool trailer and then living up to it in the actual film. Further, I will give Ang Lee lots of credit for making such a wide variety of films--from Sense and Sensibility (which I didn't really enjoy) to Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger (which I did). Two thumbs up.
On the other hand, it's kind of annoying when the local art house gets a film like this which is even slightly "mainstream" and suddenly the normally sedate customers are joined by morons who do things like bring their 4-year-old kids to the film and then don't seem to mind when said brats start running up and down the aisles in the middle of the film. Ugh. It's always interesting at the end of the film, since one can distinguish between the theatre's regular customers and the mainstream "yes, I like foreign films" types by observing who gets up and leaves the second the credits appear...
Posted by Tom Sauter (Member # 616) on 01-03-2001, 08:32 AM:
No kids at this one... went to the 9:15PM show! The iffy nature of the neighborhood surrounding the cinema keeps the soccer moms and their charges from making appearances.Sony would have made a killing with commercial release.
Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 01-08-2001, 08:47 AM:
My theatre is the only one in the Dallas area aside from 2-3 others that are showing this film. This film sells out almost every show except for the first round during the weekends.Since it arrived, we moved it from our smallest (124) to our largest medium (266) as quick as we could. We would have placed it in our largest (563) if we didn't have Cast Away in one and the DLP, playing Emperor's, taking up the other.
It's amazing that this film made the top ten this weekend (1/8) with only 173 theatres and $3.7M
Posted by Erik Schill (Member # 675) on 01-14-2001, 11:45 AM:
We FINALLY got this, this week, I ran it down on thursday, it was pretty good, except for 2 of the "kids" I work with that came to see it that must have ADD kept talking, and throwing stuff durring the movie, it made it hard to concentrate on the subtitles. After the movie I went to tell them that they are both assholes, and not to expect me to ever let them back into a run-down. One of the pluses about not being a manager, I can be a prick when I want
Posted by Tom Sauter (Member # 616) on 01-15-2001, 10:06 AM:
I have no qualms about asing people to stop
talking, and have even has jerks removed from
the theatre. I demand common courtesy when I
pay 6.50 for a film.
Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-16-2001, 11:33 AM:
$6.50 for a ticket? I hope you mean a discounted price. We are about to bump our general admission rate up to $8.00.
Posted by Tom Sauter (Member # 616) on 01-16-2001, 12:23 PM:
One local chain here is $6.50, most National chains are 7 or 7.50. The depressed Upstate NY economy keeps prices a bit lower than the national average, perhaps.
Posted by Erik Schill (Member # 675) on 01-16-2001, 03:07 PM:
over here in rochester, our ticket prices just went up to 7.00....but I've been to other places in upstate where I've seen 9.50
Posted by Heyward Garner (Member # 722) on 01-22-2001, 12:21 AM:
Well Damn... The buzz has reached Winston-Salem, and yes, Sony would have made a damn fortune with a wide release. Customers and lowly floor staff are constantly inquiring about the film. Best I can say is that Greensboro (a 45 minute drive on a GOOD day) has it, and far as I know, that's about it for the state of North Carolina. We appear to be displayed as uneducated country folk down here... Well, not all of us...
Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 02-09-2001, 01:31 PM:
I finally got to see this. It was so-so. Maybe I need to watch it again because I saw this at the AMC Mesquite 30 while I was in town in Dallas, and I honestly don't know why I let my brother talk me into seeing it there in the first place because I should have known what kind of quality to expect. Another reason why I probably didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would was because I was tired and thought the fight sequences might make me up. The film definitely has its moments although there was one part of the movie that threw me for a loop at first because I've never seen a movie that dedicated an entire reel to a flashback sequence. Maybe I don't watch enough art house material, but I've just never seen a flashback last that long.
As for the actual presentation, well let's just say if this theatre's using filmguard, they're not using it right. Or maybe they're forgetting that they have to rewind the pads after every show. Neither would surprise me. And whoever their projectionist is, he's not taking the time to clean the film gate. There was one clump of dirt trapped in the middle of the top portion of the screen, and it made me feel like I was watching the entire movie through a pair of binoculars, which is just as well because the sound certainly sucked.
And though this has nothing really to do with the actual movie, these guys at the Mesquite really ought to think about updating their trailer packages. They still had the teaser for Pearl Harbor and were also playing the trailer for Snatch even though they were playing the actual movie there. Maybe they're re-instituting concurrent trailer programming there, but I doubt it. Anyway, I just thought I'd share my miserable experience with the rest of you. Now that I think about it, watching this movie at an AMC and critiquing it is really unfair to the actual work of art itself, so maybe I will watch it again.
------------------
The man with the magic hands.
Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 02-13-2001, 04:47 PM:
"BARBARA CARTLAND ENTERS THE DRAGON"
Is it normal, chinese women galloping 'round the tree-tops ?
Please ask the nice man to stay with Sense & Sensibility, and the art-house-snobs to pull down their hands.
BTW was it just the danish prints, or did you also have to suffer from grain and no-way-focus...?Push the button, Max !
Fate,
Professor
Posted by Raj Sheth (Member # 121) on 03-05-2001, 02:00 PM:
GREAT Movie....although I watched it a second time....was it me or was the "dream sequence" in the midle of the film just too long. Still a great show.....
Posted by Christopher Barahona (Member # 516) on 03-06-2001, 10:14 AM:
After years of watching martial arts films where the camera shot the action from a fixed camera position with little or no movement, a director has finally had the sense, intuition and talent to film the subject matter with as much grace and beauty as action taking place. One of the best and innovative movies to be released in the last decade. Deserves mucho oscars but won't get them because it's not mainstream.
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-11-2001, 09:38 PM:
Are there two versions of this movie?
The one you all saw and the piece of crap I saw? I absolutely cannot believe that this chop-socky movie is up for best picture of the year. I guess it just goes to show how bad a year it was for films for this to be considered the best.
Ya seen one kung fu movie, ya seen em all.------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
Posted by Tom Sauter (Member # 616) on 03-11-2001, 10:16 PM:
I guess I am a bit biased toward kung-fu films... I spent a summer (and I mean the _whole_ summer) tracking down copies of Jackie Chan flicks from overseas."Crouching Tiger" was probably only the second movie since "Empire Strikes Back" that I have ever paid full price to see more than once.
P.S. Way to go on the Align-o-Tron!
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-12-2001, 11:12 AM:
Thanks TomI can understand Jackie Chan films, and I'm a real Bruce Lee fan (even his bad ones). But IMHO the only thing this film had going for it was dazzling scenery. The "flying" scenes were laughable. (I though I smelled a rat when I saw the trailers and notice the blatant wiggle wobble from the wire harnesses.) I really expected that later in the show it would turn out that this was some method that the characters were using to pull of the heist of the sword. Then, when I found out they were seriously wanting me to believe that this was "for real"....
The other thing is that I've seen most of the "Best Picture" competitors, and I just can't believe that someone would put this in the same league as Gladiator. From the rave reviews I've been reading I expected something far far better than what I got.
Best foreign picture of the year.... maybe.
------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 03-23-2001, 12:05 PM:
After reading all the wonderful comments above I just thought I would let you all know, I could not wait for this picture to be over. I was bored and not in the mood to see this film. Thought it was awfull.For the record, I thought
"American Beauty" was awfull last year.
Posted by Gracia L. Babbidge (Member # 582) on 03-24-2001, 01:54 PM:
Heh, well, I did enjoy this film. 
…And I suspect that our bookers are surprised that it is doing as well as it is here. (We're now on our sixth week of having a print of it.)I won't ramble on about why I liked this film, since I know how well my reviews tend to go over here… 
~GLB
------------------
In some cultures, what I do is considered normal.
Posted by Will Morrow (Member # 792) on 04-06-2001, 06:48 PM:
Uh, Peter Pan? This movies great point was the duo between the two ladies. I had heard people saying it had special effects that blew away The Matrix. I have one thing to say to that. NO. The Matrix pioneered bullet time, and did a MUCH better job at hiding fly lines when they were used. Does anyone agree with me on this? Plus, if you are going to brag about your special effects, maybe you shouldn't distract the audience with poorly written dialog at the bottom of the screen. Either do an overdub, or let us add our own words if we don't speak the language. Just my thoughts, what are yours??? ;-)Will
Posted by David Koegel (Member # 25) on 04-10-2001, 08:42 AM:
Huh? You wanted the movie to be either dubbed or totally untranslated?? Gosh, makes me think of all those old Japanese Sci-Fi movies with the hilarious dubbing. Personally, I like subtitles over dubbing, if it's done well. I get a much better idea of the characters' emotions by hearing the "original" voices (had to use quotation marks here since so many movies use ADR).Of course, if the dubbing is awful -- defined as not-quite-in-sync with the picture or being only a Readers Digest version of what's being said -- then I'd have to agree that dubbed would be the better alternative.
As for no translation, man you must really have some patience 
But if your real beef is the "... poorly written dialog ... ", well, I guess I'm more forgiving of foreign films, especially one from China.
I was amazed at the cinematography, though my expectations were not that high to start with. I do agree that the fly-line scenes got to be a bit too much after a while. Now that I've seen this movie, I guess it's time to watch my Eat Drink Man Woman. 
Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 04-27-2001, 08:24 PM:
Ian was reading me the listings of what our competitors are playing yesterday and referred to the movie as Crouching tigger. We've decided that the remake should be called Crouching Tigger, Hidden Pooh and should be set in the 100 Acre Woods.
Posted by Jonathan Haglund (Member # 807) on 04-28-2001, 05:11 AM:
I was all set to call this one Crouching Tiger, Hidden Audience before release, then THREE months later, we finally get rid of it last night. The only highlight to this movie were the color tones. They did an excellent job of uplifting the otherwise unbelieveable special(ed) effects.Not to brag about projection problems or anything, but this print just would not die. It burned so many times for reasons I still can't figure out, but as soon as it was patched up and runn through the cleaner with some FilmGuard, it was good as new. Must have put in 10 clear splices in the last reel alone... 
------------------
Jonathan Haglund
Edwards Theatre Circuit, Inc
Park Place 10
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 05-01-2001, 09:26 AM:
"I had heard people saying it had special effects that blew away The Matrix."Puke
It's been a while since I've seen flying scenes so poorly executed. I am absolutely amazed that they left some of these remarkably poor flying bits in there. Maybe the people that made those comments were applying two different standards of judgement. Cutting CTHL immense amounts of slack because it is from China?
------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-01-2001, 02:17 PM:
This stupid movie just won't die. It is still running around town, although attendance is pretty much dried up.I will now back up my use of the words "stupid movie" with a clarification. I have not seen this flick. All I have seen is the trailer and a few minutes here and there throughout the film. But any film where people just run up a flight of "air stairs" 50 feet off of the ground to battle is just plain damn STUPID! Couldn't they have made it somewhat realistic???
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-01-2001, 02:29 PM:
Should every movie be realistic? Nah. Lots of Chinese movies are just like this... way over the top. Maybe it shoud be referred to as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Wires"?
Posted by Will Morrow (Member # 792) on 05-03-2001, 05:37 PM:
How about Crouching Tiger, (NOT SO) Hidden Wires? Makes more sense to me.
Posted by Will Morrow (Member # 792) on 05-03-2001, 05:38 PM:
Nevermind...I don't suck!
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-05-2001, 08:06 PM:
You can edit posts for misspellings and stuff like that, and no one will ever know how much you suck