Shutter Island...

[HaroldBlvd]

Anybody see it?

I just saw it. I really wanted to like it. You ever go to a movie that you wanted to like and the movie makes a bad turn plot wise and never get back on track. That's what this movie is to me. Turns out to be one of those Jacobs Ladder type films that you don't know where reality starts. I hate movies like that. It was too long and got really boring. No suspense.
I spent a lot of the movie thinking about the great Scorsese movies that I have loved over the past 35 years. Many of them can be viewed numerous times. Not this one.

Should be called Shitter Island.

[pscan]

Disagree.

While not the best movie ever made, or even in Scorsese's top 5, I still had a good time with the movie. I knew little about the plot (other than seeing the trailer 5,000 times over the past 8/9 months), so I had a great time with the whole ride of the film. I think that there's a lot about the first 30 minutes or so that is put there intentionally to be off-putting or suspicious and that is taking a lot of folks out of the movie, but it's part of the whole grand plan of the film. For example, DiCaprio's acting was way over the top for me until the various pieces started coming together and it made more sense.

I think the key is lowering your expectations and knowing little or nothing about the plot. Or maybe there is pleasure in knowing the entire plot and seeing how the film is intentionally messing with you. In any case, I thought it was pretty wonderful.

[Pat K]

I will end up seeing this sooner or later, but from the trailers I've seen and things I've heard I can't imagine that I'm going to enjoy it. It just seems so heavy-handed and lame. (Casting Max Von Sydow as an ominous German doktor? Did he only get the part because John Carradine is dead?)

Then again, I do have an abiding love for BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, which is a deeply flawed but hilarious grand guignol crazyfest, so maybe I will enjoy this on the same level...

But I swear to God, if it turns out at the end that Leonardo DiCaprio is really, like, a patient in the mental institution or some shit like that, Scorcese is going to be dead to me. I swear to God he better not try to pull that kind of sub-GOTHIKA shit.

[HaroldBlvd]

For me, the ending was not clear. 
Bringing Out The Dead! I was trying to think of the name of that picture.  It is better than this one for sure. It didn't get the best reviews but I'll bet it's worth a second look.
Same screenwriter as Taxi Driver.
My Brooklyn College professor assigned my class to see Taxi Driver in76 when it came out. I was blown away.

[SJK]

**SPOILER ALERT**

But I swear to God, if it turns out at the end that Leonardo DiCaprio is really, like, a patient in the mental institution or some shit like that, Scorcese is going to be dead to me. I swear to God he better not try to pull that kind of sub-GOTHIKA shit.

Heavy handed and lame, also accurate. I really enjoyed the power point presentation near the end to help explain the plot twist. Great cast, beautiful pictures. I still like Scorcese, not his best work.

[masterofsparks]

But I swear to God, if it turns out at the end that Leonardo DiCaprio is really, like, a patient in the mental institution or some shit like that, Scorcese is going to be dead to me. I swear to God he better not try to pull that kind of sub-GOTHIKA shit.

Technically your beef would be with Dennis Lehane, not Martin Scorsese. I've read the novel so I am kinda curious to see how it works as a film. In spite of the fact that Scorsese is near or at the top of my list of favorite directors, I just realized the other day that Casino is the most recent of his movies that I've seen.

[Matt]

I liked it a lot. The atmosphere of the thing appealed to me more than the story, which is admittedly kind of stupid. It was really just an excuse for Martin Scorsese to empty his bag of tricks, and I found most of them effective. I thought some of the dream sequences were expertly done (the first one with Michelle Williams in the apartment, the one with Elias Koteas) and as individual scenes they'll probably rival anything else I'll see this year.

SPOILER ALERT!

The plot is pretty holey, though. The twist in itself isn't that bad, and after seeing the clues in a second viewing I actually found it kind of clever, in a dumb sorta way. The reasoning behind the twist is what bothers me. They'd actually let their "most dangerous patient" run loose on the island? During a HURRICANE? With a doctor he could conceivably murder at any moment? And why would they get the other patients to fuck with this guy's head? Aren't THEY insane too? Wouldn't forcing them into some dumb narrative sabotage their own treatments? Wouldn't that skew their grip on reality? And so on.

END SPOILERS!

But like I said, the plot was secondary. SHUTTER ISLAND is nothing if not a feast for the senses, and I had a great time watching it. Though it did kinda annoy me that they assembled this murderer's row of awesome character actors and only gave them like two minutes of screen time apiece. I could've used more Ted Levine and Elias Koteas.

[Pat K]

For me, the ending was not clear. 
Bringing Out The Dead! I was trying to think of the name of that picture.  It is better than this one for sure. It didn't get the best reviews but I'll bet it's worth a second look.

So, so good. Between Nic Cage, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, Cliff Curtis, and Ving Rhames, the scenery in that picture gets chewed to a frothy pulp.

[herbsweal]

But I swear to God, if it turns out at the end that Leonardo DiCaprio is really, like, a patient in the mental institution or some shit like that, Scorcese is going to be dead to me. I swear to God he better not try to pull that kind of sub-GOTHIKA shit.

Technically your beef would be with Dennis Lehane, not Martin Scorsese. I've read the novel so I am kinda curious to see how it works as a film. In spite of the fact that Scorsese is near or at the top of my list of favorite directors, I just realized the other day that Casino is the most recent of his movies that I've seen.

If that's the case, you should see The Departed, it's definitely in the Scorsese tradition.
On Shutter Island, I also looked forward to seing it because of reading the book, and overall I wasn't disappointed.

[Kim Kelly]

I read the book in a day and a half. I have no desire to see the movie now.

[wood and iron]

Is Dennis Lehane worth checking out? I'm intrigued because of his involvement with The Wire and I'm always looking for decent crime fiction.

[Kim Kelly]

It was a fun, easy read, but I was totally disappointed by the ending and I saw it coming a mile away. Like, 5 pages in. I turned to my mom who read it before I did, and I said [SPOILER ALERT], "He's a patient, isn't he?" and she said, "I'm not telling you!"

[SJK]

I'll say it again...terrible movie for the reason mentioned above.

[masterofsparks]

Is Dennis Lehane worth checking out? I'm intrigued because of his involvement with The Wire and I'm always looking for decent crime fiction.

I like his stuff. Two of his other books have already been adapted (Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone) and his most recent book The Given Day is also in development. I would recommend Darkness Take My Hand, Gone Baby Gone, and Mystic River. They're fun, solid crime fiction.

[Jason]

Veronon/Jackson 7 train station.