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Crunching the Numbers: Lucky Number Slevin

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Yeah I'm stuck with Risk Management. So I will review it and be non-committal about a final grade for now:Risk ManagementA riczhang ProductionHedging BetsRisk Management is very good, I'll get that out there. It is meticulously crafted, precisely calculated, and most of its scenes are coldly economical in their scope, approach, and tone. It's a straight, serious turn into modern finance for the Coen Brothers, who generally have been more black comedy focused in their contemporary efforts. It's a fitting end to their thematic trilogy of selfish greedy individuals rising in power at the expense of others they previously drew on for support.I really really want to give this film an A, but I can't quite lock it in, because Risk Management is like its main character, it completely buys into its own hype and therefore ignores its flaws and instead goes "Everything is great! Have more!" The result is a film that is 167 minutes long and I would say that about 30 minutes of that running time could easily have been excised as unnecessary padding. While this padding is well done and has good acting and writing, it's duplicative and sorta just exists to continuously remind you that Andrew gets bored once he gets the hang of something. His relationship with Emily could have been cut in half and the exact same point with the exact same depth would have come across (though then there'd have been no reason to cast Anne Hathaway in such a small role, though Emily is small and rather one-dimensional role already that exists solely to be discarded). Likewise a number of the scenes showing Andrew going through work on autopilot in the first and second acts could have been cut or trimmed since by the end of the first 50 minutes or so we get that Andrew is brilliant and could do general work in his sleep but the film repeats that for another half-hour. The result is that the first 90 or so minutes come off as very dry.I think something the film could have done is swapped out some of the scenes I mentioned to show Andrew trying to seek challenges beyond mere work to show how much an adrenaline junkie he really is. Sky-diving, or cliff-diving, or even auto-erotic asphyxiation (I kid on this last one though the Coens are the kind of directors with the brass balls to depict it) to show the extremes he will go to in order to give his life some form of feeling. It's just my own feeling on the subject.So yeah, I think an inordinate amount of the movie is excellent, but the padding and dryness does detract from it a bit. I just can't make up my mind how much.A- or A?And yes, the final decision will affect people's bets.And I am not going to take the easy way out and go A-/A which is a similar thing I did for Rich and Famous.

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Category Update:

The Prestige Category
1. The Rise and Fall of Julius Caesar

2. Risk Management
3. Extrasensory
4. Innocense
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
6. The Three Month Funeral
8. The Rich & Famous
9. Le Plasir, Faux
10. The Fall of Boss Tweed

 

BET UPDATE!!!!

 

riczhang

Risk Management will rank above Three Month Funeral. (Type 1, betting 40 points)

 

SUCCESS!!!!

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The art heist thing would have worked since it would have fit into the whole criminal thrill aspect.

 

The gay scene probably wouldn't have worked though since it sorta just looks like "well bored with Emily, wonder what a guy is like...ok bored again."

Edited by 4815162342
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To be fair, I kind of assumed that the film would become shorter, even by about 20min.

Yeah, I envisioned that too, but I rewrote a lot of the 3rd act and it just ballooned from what I imagined.
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BET UPDATE!!!!

 

riczhang

Risk Management will rank above Three Month Funeral. (Type 1, betting 40 points)

 

SUCCESS!!!!

 

Darn it, Ric, why do you have to win? :P I agree with this assessment though. :)

 

Next up is Chuck and Liam :D

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Chuck Norris and Liam Neeson vs. Santa Claus, Ultimate Badass

A Blanghetti Production

 

Now I Have a Film Mash-up, Ho Ho Ho

 

 

Yeah you all know exactly what you're getting from this film by now.

 

Film 1 Grade: B+

Film 2 Grade: B

Film 3 Grade: B+

 

Overall Grade: B+

Edited by 4815162342
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The Box Office Category

1. Spark 2: Ignition: B+
2. Amulet: B+
3. Blank: B+
4. Chuck Norris and Liam Neeson vs. Santa Claus, Ultimate Badass: B+

5. Unbalanced 4: B+
6. Justice League: B

7. The Chronicles of Narnia...: B
8. Call of Duty: Eye of the Storm: B
9. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: B-
10. The Wanders: Prometheus
11. Journey: C+
12. The Academy: D+
13. The Martian Chronicles: D

 

 

BET UPDATE!!!!

 

Blank
Chuck Norris will be higher than Unbalanced 4 (Type 1, betting 30 points)

SUCCESS!!!!

 

riczhang

Chuck Norris will end up #3 in the BO category (Type 3, betting 20 points)

FAILED (At Best It Will Be #4)

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But really, I was looking forward to this film a lot since most Vast Dark films are twisted sick brilliance, but this felt like a rather unnecessary and overly mundane prequel merely meant to pad the wallets of some producers.

 

C-

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Category Update:

The Prestige Category
1. The Rise and Fall of Julius Caesar
2. Extrasensory
3. Innocense
4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
5. The Three Month Funeral
6. The Rich & Famous
7. Le Plasir, Faux
8. The Fall of Boss Tweed
9. The Vast Dark: Shadows of the Past


BET UPDATE!!!

 

Blank (100 Points to start)
The Vast Dark will be ranked 8th overall in Prestige (Type 3, betting 20 points)

FAILED (at best 9th place)

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