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Toonbots message board: I, Spy - 10.1
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Michael Sun Nov 10 03:17:32 2002
I, Spy - 10.1
OK, OK, this was about an 8.5 to tell the truth, but as the IMDb puts it, "This is the first Hollywood feature in which Budapest stars as Budapest, in that the plot takes place there. Earlier roles played by Budapest include Berlin and Buenos Aires." I ranted about Berlin earlier, as it was played by Budapest in Spy Games.
Any movie with footage shot in Budapest gets a +0.1, and any such movie which *admits* it's Budapest gets +1. And I threw in another +0.5 because there was a *lot* of Budapest in the film, including many, many places with which I'm very familiar. Although I don't think the top of the Chain Bridge looks like that and I'm nearly *positive* the Chain Bridge doesn't have a guardroom in the bottom of its tower.
Oh, yeah, the movie itself. Pretty funny, decent action, really nice chase scene, good-looking female lead, all the elements of a decent movie to drop a few bucks on. Owen Wilson is pretty good (can't pronounce Hungarian worth a damn though, which brings me to my new slogan: "I speak Hungarian better than Owen Wilson". My wife was astounded that a professional actor couldn't learn three sentences of Hungarian better than that. Hint: Mr. Wilson's subtitles are much more elaborate than what he's actually saying. And my imitation of what he's actually saying has gotten me a belly laugh from more than one Hungarian here in Bloomington.) And this is the best movie Eddie Murphy has made in a long, long time.
Now, back to the Budapest thing. The only problem with the chase scene is that it starts on the hill at the castle (which is on the Buda side of the river), crosses the Chain Bridge into Pest, travels along the Danube into Angyalfold (kind of like Queens, or Jersey, to Manhattan), has one suddenly inexplicable scene not in Budapest, and then recommences immediately -- BACK ON THE HILL BELOW THE FISHERS' BASTION! (Look it up on a map, these are real places I'm talking about here, places I have actually stood, which is too damn cool.) And continues along the street, still on the Buda side of the river, to a point right in front of the Gellert hotel and baths and down the street from the university where my wife got her Masters.
But it was a fun car chase even if teleportation was involved.
My wife was quite disturbed at the amount of Budapest which exploded in the movie. She tries to tell herself it was just Hollywood movie magic, but it's difficult to see a statue *which you recognize* get its head shot off, and not freak a little. Also, I made fun of the fact that the bad guy's "personal palace" meant he must be truly incredibly wealthy, given that it's the Hungarian royal palace and is now the National Museum.... My wife said, "but that's not for sale." I gently told her that I wasn't entirely serious. What impressed me was that they not only filmed it there -- but the aerial photography of the "personal palace" was actually the correct building. That's attention to detail! (Odd, given the teleportation in the car chase...)
I think it was a little too weird for her, the whole Hollywood/Budapest thing.
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mouse Sun Nov 10 13:55:53 2002
Re: I, Spy - 10.1
> OK, OK, this was about an 8.5 to tell the truth, but as the IMDb puts it,
> "This is the first Hollywood feature in which Budapest stars as
> Budapest, in that the plot takes place there. Earlier roles played by
> Budapest include Berlin and Buenos Aires." I ranted about Berlin
> earlier, as it was played by Budapest in Spy Games.
i think you might be short-changing budapest a little here, michael - i know of very few cities with such an acting range. new york, for example, while a popular star, never seems to play anything but itself - and how much talent does that take? although you apparently feel budapest's performance of berlin was substandard (i haven't seen 'spy games', so can't comment), i think budapest should be applauded for the sheer audacity it showed in even _considering_ playing buenos aires, which is in a whole different hemisphere (however you slice the globe). while it is nice that film makers permitted budapest to play itself, and thus let viewers become familiar with the 'real budapest', in the long run, i think you will find this sort of thing will result in type-casting, and will prevent budapest from achieving the breadth of characterization of which it seems to be capable. while it's always nice to see the true face of an old friend, one must not stand in the way of its career. perhaps it _would_ be best if budapest when back to its roots, and worked harder on its depiction of middle-european cities, but i think it is a little early to limit it to playing only itself. perhaps when it becomes better established among the acting cities of the world, it will settle into roles that are essentially variants of itself (as happens with many actors) - but let it establish its credentials first.
(and tell your wife not to worry about the explosions - it's all just makeup and stuff. it's like the end of 'butch cassidy' - newman and redford didn't _really_ die.)
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spinclad Mon Nov 25 01:23:40 2002
antipodality
> i think budapest should be applauded for the sheer
> audacity it showed in even _considering_ playing buenos aires, which is in
> a whole different hemisphere (however you slice the globe).
with deep regret and despite sitting on my hands for weeks, now, i find i fail to agree. finally i had to check on an actual globe to confirm/refute the mind's image. alas, budapest and buenos aires appear to be some way from antipodalian, so there are central slicings that fail to separate them. (perhaps if the andes were next to new zealand? sadly, this has not been scheduled for within the next 100 Myr.)
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mouse Mon Nov 25 18:45:58 2002
Re: antipodality
> with deep regret and despite sitting on my hands for weeks, now, i find i
> fail to agree. finally i had to check on an actual globe to confirm/refute
> the mind's image. alas, budapest and buenos aires appear to be some way
> from antipodalian, so there are central slicings that fail to separate
> them. (perhaps if the andes were next to new zealand? sadly, this has not
> been scheduled for within the next 100 Myr.)
oh, buzz buzz. i was thinking of standard hemispheres - east/west or north/south (at the _equator_)
still, nice to see _someone_ read my post.....
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spinclad Mon Dec 2 22:34:55 2002
Re: antipodality
> oh, buzz buzz. i was thinking of standard hemispheres - east/west or
> north/south (at the _equator_)
> still, nice to see _someone_ read my post.....
i think i might put them both in the Atlantic Hemisphere (the last of the six being Pacific)
or else, from the point of view from 0NS, 0EW, the Upper Hemisphere (and Lower). or else again the Near, and Far.
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mouse Tue Dec 3 17:11:10 2002
Re: antipodality
> i think i might put them both in the Atlantic Hemisphere (the last of the
> six being Pacific)
> or else, from the point of view from 0NS, 0EW, the Upper Hemisphere (and
> Lower). or else again the Near, and Far.
what were we talking about?....oh yeah - rio and budapest.
welllll....if you insist.
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