Elizabethtown (1 Viewer)

[Claire Panke]

Hey, Michael...

You posted >Back in the day, THE INSIDER was being shot in Louisville. My friends and I were driving around looking for something (that I won't name here ) and came across a car on fire. Turns out they were filming this for the movie but I can't remember if this scene is actually in there or not.<

Yes, the scene made the final cut. It was an unforgettable image to me. I believe it comes following Wiegand's deposition in Mississipi, after he's flown back to Louisville and is being driven home from the airport. Although Wiegand's finally feeling good about blowing the whisttle (by getting his testimony into public record)course, he gets home to find his wife has taken the kids and gone. The car was a nice metaphor.

I've been in a couple Indy movies - I'm one of the crowd in Eight Men Out. I don't mind the inconvenience of location shooting to locals - it ain't that big a deal, it ain't forever and it brings a lot of $$ into the community. At least these filmmakers shot *in* KY and copped a couple scenes *in* yer actual Elizabethtown. That's a lot closer than they often get to subject locations. In & Out was supposed to be set in southern Indiana but was actually filmed in another state entirely (NY or PA). That's normal for movie companies, so be glad they used the real town, albeit briefly - at least they were in the Bluegrass.

I would love to see Cameron Crowe get back to more intimate, character driven stories, which is where I think he excells. I've been a fan since Say Anything, so I'll be sure to check "Elizabethtown" out.

BTW, Michael, lotsa flicks have been shot in and around the Bluegrass - Lexington, Georgetown, Versailles, Paris, Midway etc. The last big budget movie was Seabiscuit.

 

[Tim Glover]

Trailer did look good. Sounds intriguing.

 

[Abby_B]

Trailer caught my interest...I'll likely check this one out when it comes out. It looks like it might actually suit Orlando Bloom and I can see the Garden State similarities.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I saw the trailer for this one while waiting for WAR OF THE WORLDS to begin, and it looks interesting. Besides, I'm also interested in seeing it for that Michael Elliott connection, y'all.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Thanks for the reminder Claire. I haven't seen the movie since opening day so I wasn't sure if it was in there or not. We actually pulled off Gene Snyder to see what was going on. We were a little curious to why several fire trucks were around yet not putting the fire out.

 

[Haggai]

I just saw the trailer too, and I thought it looked pretty good. Detail that made this native Kentuckian (I'm from Lexington) smile: Kirsten correcting Orlando's pronunciation of Louisville. Just like she says, it really IS pronounced "loo-uh-vull" by everyone who's from there.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

That's right, Haggai.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Quicktime Link

 

[Allen Hirsch]

Plusses: Cameron Crowe, Kirsten Dunst, Garden State vibe
Minuses: Orlando Bloom, white trash vibe

Why has Bloom gotten so many leading or near-leading roles? I still haven't seen any great acting ability or even a presence to justify it - or is he just the current male version casting of the "it girl": so hot for no apparent reason he's cast in EVERYTHING trying to be "with it"??

 

[TheLongshot]

Well, he's young, and women find him attractive. That's enough to keep giving him roles.

It looks cute, and I'm always a fan of Cameron Crowe.

Jason

 

[Gregory Vaughan]

I'm also really looking forward to this. I'm in the camp of people who haven't liked Orlando in anything he's done so far, yet still think he could be good in the film. I really think he's been miscast so far as the "oddly feminine action hero" (a description which I think nails it), and the fact that they keep casting him in those roles just shows the utter lack of imagination in Hollywood. If Orlando can't pull this one off, I'm ready to write him off. Kirsten I've liked in just about everything she's done.

 

[Matt Man]

Even in Bring It on?

Orlando played a good elf and he looked cool falling out of a helicopter in Black Hawk Down other than that he doesn't got much else going for him

 

[John Mansor]

Just watched the trailer and first look video. I am definitely looking forward to this one. I think Orlando has been fine so far in other movies but this will be a true test of his acting talent. Or at least his ability to take good direction...

 

[ZacharyTait]

I hate to be a wet blanket, but the buzz for this coming out of the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals is not good. Jeff Wells, David Poland, and James Berardinelli have all expressed great reservations about this movie.

David Poland's review of Elizabethtown

Jeff Well's comments on Elizabethtown (2nd item down under the title Smah-Up)

James Berardinelli's comments on Elizabethtown (Last item down)

It was announced before these screenings that the movie was going to undergo a major re-edit before it's release. Hopefully, that'll change things around, but it looks like at this point that Cameron Crowe may have a stinker on his hands, and that just breaks my heart.

 

[John Mansor]

Wow! That isn't good. I would have expected any bad reviews to be blamed on Bloom.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Very interesting...in a bad way. I love Cameron Crowe to pieces, and these reviews are by fans of his as well. I skipped Wells (he's a tool), but Poland and James B. are straight-shooters. Considering I (we) have been waiting for this film for a few years, this could be rather disappointing. But I will still see it in theaters. And I hope it will be tweaked into something worthy of Crowe's past accomplishments.

Thanks for the links...be prepared is a good motto

Sad news, though.

I look forward to forming my own opinion on the film,
Chuck

 

[Eric Peterson]

I'd be worried if I had heard of any of those reviewers.

Seriously though, it would take something a lot more serious than even a negative Ebert review to keep me away from this flm.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Cameron Crowe came back to "Elizabethtown" yesterday to show the movie to 250+ people and you can see some photos and other stuff HERE.

I didn't go but I did speak to six people who watched the movie and none of them were too thrilled. All of them said the movie ran way too long but apparently this was a director's cut and Crowe said he's going to cut out about 18 more minutes. All of them also said that Bloom was horrible in the film and four of these people are die-hard Bloom fans. All of them agreed that the film has its heart in the right place but the final results didn't really come through but cutting the film down might help. All said the soundtrack was great and Dunst wasn't "too bad". It seemed, to these folks anyways, that the crowd watching it really wouldn't have been that caught up had the title not been the city they live in.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Darn it. Well I didn't have him in the Oscar mix with this so my expectations weren't as high as others, but I was hoping for a pleasantly light with a touch of heart relationship film as only CC can make.

Crossing my fingers that he can fix it with edits. But its proof again that the film arts are very tricky and impossible to master. How many great directors have found themselves with a film in editing that they just don't remember seeming so bad during shooting.

 

[norman j]

Saw this at the Toronto Film Fest.
Not the final cut as he really needs to cut it down- its too long. An OK movie, but not great.