Review: Lincoln

-
Can the time you see the film effect the quality?
 
This is a question I have been asking myself. More on that later.
 
The Civil War rages on and President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) is trying to pass an amendment that would abolish slavery in the United States. However, like all political decisions, not everyone agrees.
 
Director Steven Speilberg walks a fine line between obvious Oscar bait and a history lesson with his latest. Luckily, there are fine performances all around. Especially by Day-Lewis, who feels like a lock for Best Actor after watching this film. The supporting cast is beyond impressive and includes big names such as Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sally Feild, (although she looks old enough to be Lincoln's mother rather than his wife) David Strathain, John Hawkes, Joseph Cross, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Jackie Earle Haley, Jared Harris and Michael Stuhlbarg. Many other recognizable faces pop up here in there. There's so many great people that some of them feel a bit wasted.
 
I found the scenes where the House is discussing the bill to be the most interesting. At times it even made Lincoln himself feel like an afterthought. Although when Lincoln is on screen he commands attention. But this brings me back to my previous statement about the time of day when I watched this. The showing I went to was at 11:00pm. It was late, I worked a long day so this was the only show time I could make. I have to say the movie felt way too long. Especially after the bill itself is passed, it felt like an eternity to get to the ending. I'm not sure if I would've felt this antsy had I seen the film at a reasonable hour. Lincoln reminds me a lot of The King's Speech. A good movie all around, but it's not something I'm dying to see again.
 
Recommended: Yes
 
Grade: B
 
Memorable Quote: "I can't lose you." - Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) 
 


Comments

  1. JoshDecember 2, 2012 at 8:02 PM

    Great review! I thought it was too long as well, and I saw it at 11:30 in the morning. While I might watch it again sometime, I'm not dying to see it again either.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ruthDecember 3, 2012 at 2:11 PM

    Oh the time of seeing a film certainly makes a difference! 11pm would be too late for me too, Brittani, unless it's a full-throttle action flick then I probably would get sleepy. I'm actually not all that interested in seeing Lincoln for some reason, maybe a rental. I know it's nuts but I quite enjoyed the crazy & ridiculous Vampire Hunter version, ahah.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lights Camera ReactionDecember 8, 2012 at 12:42 PM

    Great review! Not that excited to see this, but I will anyway for the cast.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more