Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Birthday Girl

This is topic Birthday Girl in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-01-2002, 03:47 AM:

I'll admit it. I think most movies these days are crap. It's just the same stupid stories rewritten over and over that is sickeningly predictable. What did I think about Birthday Girl? I liked it!

This is a film that has a good story, two good actors giving solid performances (Ben Chaplin and Nicole Kidman), good cinematography, good editing, good direction and a simple yet clean sound mix. We don't see movies like this come along too often. Simple! That's the best word I can use to describe it, for I am sick to death of the overly fast cutting, super lame "cool" dialogue and music videoish "style" that movies have become lately. Instead, Birthday Girl forgets about all of that and concentrates on the STORY...so much so that you will forget about everything else. I even failed to keep track of the reel changes.

So in the words of Forrest, "that's all I have to say about that", because if I was to say anything else, I might just spoil this charmer of a movie. Check it out.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-02-2002, 05:53 PM:

Sat. Feb. 2nd, Cinemark 17, Springfield OR, 12:25PM, Theater #15. Scope. Digital, probably SRD. Bright, sharp, steady image. Whatever level the fader was on, it was "perfect" for this movie.

After the last preview, the animated Miramax feature logo played, followed by America and Cinemark (both filthy), then into the feature (i.e. America & Cinemark were on the wrong side of the Miramax logo). There were maybe 10 people in the theater.

Ben Chaplin is a mousy English bank clerk, lives alone, under-appreciated at work, into porn and a little kinky. Orders a Russian "mail order companion" (Kidman) via the Internet, but gets a little more than he was expecting.

Everything Brad said is pretty accurate. Nicole Kidman etc. were fine, the movie looked and sounded good. But keeping the story "simple" didn't seem to add up to enough. If Nicole Kidman sees the final cut, I suspect she will tell her agent "Don't send me any more scripts from those guys".

BTW: Is there anything Nicole Kidman *can't* do? She was very convincing as a chain-smoking Russian. And if her Russian dialog was dubbed, they did a great job on it. Very seamless.

------------------
- dave
Avoid the meadow...

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-08-2002, 01:16 PM:

quote:
After the last preview, the animated Miramax feature logo played, followed by America and Cinemark (both filthy), then into the feature (i.e. America & Cinemark were on the wrong side of the Miramax logo).

On my print at least the attached trailer-which is normaly either spliced on or just part of the movie, ie a continous piece of film-was masking taped on. Upon inspection-which these guys probably didn't do, I discovered the Miramax logo is actually part of the attached trailer-ie, before the masking tape. You have to do some editing to get it right. I don't know when the studios or whoever is responsible for this is going to get it through their thick heads-WE WILL ALWAYS CUT OFF THE ATTACHED TRAILER AND INSERT OUR POLICY TRAILERS AND SOUND SNIPES. THIS IS COMPANY POLICY AND WE ARE MORE AFRAID OF THE HOME OFFICE THAN WE ARE OF YOU. Sorry for shouting, but this is one of this things that continuously irratates me.

Back to the movie, I haven't seen it yet. I suppose I'll have to catch it quick, won't be around too long with the business its doing.