If Scotland is our Florida, where's Cuba?

[alexsarll]

Have finally seen the film Nick Cave scripted, The Proposition. As I had been led to expect, Australia's wilderness had been filmed impeccably, forming a perfect setting for a typically Biblical Cave story (as in one of the bits of the Bible whose story is primal and powerful more than it conveys anything which even the loopiest fundamentalist could take as a moral lession). However, like every film I have ever seen to feature Ray Winstone, it would be significantly improved by the removal of Ray Winstone.
Some other actors who would have given a better performance as Captain Stanley:
Lance Henriksen
Michael Chiklis
Pierce Brosnan
Jack Davenport*
Nick Cave himself
Edward James Olmos
Michael Caine
Damn near anyone except Ray cocking Winstone.
Which makes it rather a shame that the one piece of casting already done for the next Hillcoat/Cave film, Death of a Ladies' Man, is...Ray sodding Winstone.

Taking the evidence of the new Mitchell & Webb radio sitcom pilot, 'Daydream Believers', in conjunction with the patchy current series of Peep Show, they've finally stretched themselves too thin. I suppose most everyone does in the end.
(Speaking of Peep Show - that ad shown during Friday's episode, in which a fairly attractive girl is in the bar with her own drunker self, and the tagline "Make sure you like what you see"? It's intended as an alcohol awareness thing, but I kept expecting it to turn into a variant on the Buffy episode where Evil Willow's after the normal, not-yet-gay one)

In one of yesterday's bowling matches I was, in third place, the highest-ranking male. Which I'm sure must say something vital and current about the obsolescence of gender stereotypes, though its wider applicability is perhaps doubtful.

*This option also playing up the Pirates of the Caribbean resonance the story already possesses.

Comments

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Ray Winstone has been one of my favourite bits of rough ever since Robin of Sherwood.

I agree that he was an unusual choice for Captain Stanley, but he pulled it off reasonably will nonetheless...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

'Bit of rough' is exactly what he is. He lumbers on screen and is so Tough and Manly that all the critics feel a bit funny downstairs and give him a good review in spite of his lack of any discernable acting ability.

See also: the awe in which Oasis et al were held by self-hating softies in thrall to middle class guilt and dreams of 'authenticity'.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I hated Oasis at the time, but in recent years I've mellowed towards them a lot, as fellow survivors of the mid-nineties... MY GOD! What's happening to me??!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

There does come that point at which survivors of any war will share a drink together, because the experience binds them more than their allegiances divide them. If only Oasis would desist from attempting to make new music and slagging off better bands than themselves in the new crop, I could one day come to a similar accomodation.

[invadergaz.livejournal.com]

Damn near anyone except Ray cocking Winstone. Matt Damon?

Matt Damon.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Far from ideal, but probably still preferable.

[invadergaz.livejournal.com]

I've got the suspicion that Lance Hendriksen should be in a lot more movies than he is. Bit like Michael Biehn, I guess.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Ah, a fellow Aliens fan! I suppose opportunities for those two have been limited in recent years given that James Cameron has kind of given up filmmaking.

Biehn is in the new Tarantino film though, i.e. the one that isn't going to be shown over here.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of Henriksen more from Millennium and Near Dark, tbh. But hey, at least he got to reprise (preprise?) his Aliens role as part of the general continuity clusterfvck that was Aliens Vs Predator!

Henriksen should definitely get a good role in Cameron's Aquaman...

[invadergaz.livejournal.com]

may I introduce you to a close and personal friend of mine...


Although I'm not a great fan of 80's B-Movies set somewhere in what could be the american mid-west, Near Dark is Certainly one of the few vampire films I actually like and enjoy.

Put it this way - I fought for the South. We lost.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Concur.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ach, sod films - Henriksen in particular has already shown how good he can be on TV. Someone at HBO needs to give him a call!

[invadergaz.livejournal.com]

Maybe as a guest-star on the L-word, perhaps?

:)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That's on the always-the-bridesmaid competitor Showtime, I believe. Hence being watchable but not *quite* as good.

[augstone.livejournal.com]

i watched don't tempt me the other night where satan himself was named "jack davenport". it's a spanish film but i would think someone would've known.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but come on, imagine if satan was Jack Davenport! I know I'd be more likely to succumb to temptation...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

He's dapper, but I really can't see him as devilish!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I suppose he's not exactly a household name even in his homeland. And that sort of thing happens surprisingly often, given how messy the legal consequences can be - cf the recent Life on Mars episode featuring 'Frank Miller' and 'Patrick O'Brien'.

Then again, what kind of man would sue over being called the Devil, or played by Gael Garcia Bernal?

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

I'd have liked it if it didn't have all that rape and murder in. And the weather was nicer. Oh...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Whatever are you talking about? It was lovely and sunny!
(In all seriousness, the sunsets were perhaps my favourite bit)

Anyway, the next one appears to be a comedy, for whatever value of that word. So long as it's not Sex Lives Of The Potato-Faced Winstone Men.

[rentaghost31.livejournal.com]

i would imagine that given our left wing leanings over here, that we would be cuba.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Surely NI is more Colombia (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6638015.stm)?