"I received an email from a legitimate big paper critic around an hour ago. He had seen "Snowden" and promise to report on what he though it was. The email response I got said "Don't repeat this pls but it's a dud. Oof." Figures, of course. Did anyone think this would turn out okay? My response: What was the last good Oliver Stone movie? "U-Turn" back in 1997? It's been a long time. He keeps tackling these relevant to the zeitgeist topics such as "W." in 2008, "World Trade Centre" in 2006, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in 2010 and now "Snowden," but he keeps fucking it up. How many chances is this guy going to get? He also managed to make a historical story as riveting as Alexander III of Macedonia into such a stale, boring and laughable epic.
Jefferey Wells over at Hollywood-Elsewhere somewhat agrees, he tells me: "Any Given Sunday ('99) was the last completely solid Oliver Stone film. Alexander ('00) was more in the realm of underwhelming than a disaster. But W. ('08) was reasonably decent, good Brolin performance. And the '09 doc South of the Border was impassioned, novel, ballsy. The real downturn began with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."
MrRuimy's response? "W." was a watchable comedy, Brolin was great, but there was so much potential with that project that it ultimately was a letdown for me. "Any Given Sunday" Yes! I can agree with that. A bone-crunching good time, but a little overlong." "U-Turn" was such a breath of fresh air. No politics. No bullshit. Just pure adrenaline. It wasn't well-received back in 1997 due to its grimy Tarantino-esque pulp violence, plus "Pulp Fiction" was only three years-old at the time. He tried to tackle similar territory just a few years ago with "Savages," but that was a miserable fail.
Jefferey Wells over at Hollywood-Elsewhere somewhat agrees, he tells me: "Any Given Sunday ('99) was the last completely solid Oliver Stone film. Alexander ('00) was more in the realm of underwhelming than a disaster. But W. ('08) was reasonably decent, good Brolin performance. And the '09 doc South of the Border was impassioned, novel, ballsy. The real downturn began with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."
MrRuimy's response? "W." was a watchable comedy, Brolin was great, but there was so much potential with that project that it ultimately was a letdown for me. "Any Given Sunday" Yes! I can agree with that. A bone-crunching good time, but a little overlong." "U-Turn" was such a breath of fresh air. No politics. No bullshit. Just pure adrenaline. It wasn't well-received back in 1997 due to its grimy Tarantino-esque pulp violence, plus "Pulp Fiction" was only three years-old at the time. He tried to tackle similar territory just a few years ago with "Savages," but that was a miserable fail.
This is a significant update for a project that has been stuck in development for years, and comes roughly a year after Brolin said “Sicario 3” was a maybe.