Hollywoodland

[stephenvegas]

Did anyone else see this movie?

I went to a casino today to make some bets on tomorrow's NFL games and I also went to the movie theater there to see Hollywoodland. Hollywoodland is about the 1959 death of George Reeves who became famous for playing Superman on TV in the 1950s and who died by a gun shot to his head in his bedroom. Reeve's death was officially ruled a suicide but it had some questionable circumstances.

I am really not much of a Ben Affleck fan but I thought he did a great job playing the role of Reeves in this movie. Adrien Brody, who plays the down and out private eye investigating Reeves' death, also gives a good performance. I don't want to give anything away but the ending sort of surprised me- I was not expecting to see the closing credits when they came.

Although I thought Hollywoodland was OK, I would not be surprised to find out that Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" (another mid century crime drama set in Los Angeles which opens next week) is a better movie.

[Joe]

stephenvegas said:

Did anyone else see this movie?

I went to a casino today to make some bets on tomorrow's NFL games and I also went to the movie theater there to see Hollywoodland. Hollywoodland is about the 1959 death of George Reeves who became famous for playing Superman on TV in the 1950s and who died by a gun shot to his head in his bedroom. Reeve's death was officially ruled a suicide but it had some questionable circumstances.

I am really not much of a Ben Affleck fan but I thought he did a great job playing the role of Reeves in this movie. Adrien Brody, who plays the down and out private eye investigating Reeves' death, also gives a good performance. I don't want to give anything away but the ending sort of surprised me- I was not expecting to see the closing credits when they came.

Although I thought Hollywoodland was OK, I would not be surprised to find out that Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" (another mid century crime drama set in Los Angeles which opens next week) is a better movie.

Hollywoodland is an excellent movie. Brody was outstanding in his role, as were Ben Affleck, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins.

The movie was very well paced and keeps the viewer's attention throughout. It does a good job of laying out possible explanations for Reeves' death without leaning in a particular direction. Even the ending is very open to interpretation.

I am looking foeward to The Black Dahlia, but with comparisons inevitable, it will have to be a hell of a movie to top Hollywoodland.

[pistonhurricane]

I had a free pass to go see this movie at the screening for critics and i squandered it!! My girlfriend wanted to stay home and watch Nip Tuck...arggghh!!

[gwffantrav]

I definitely want to check it out. I still remember as a kid growing up in the 70s being fascinated by how a guy who played Superman, was killed/killed himself/whatever.

Just curious, from the looks, it looks like they couldn't show the "S" insignia from the commercials....I could be wrong though. Is that the case?

Also, just on topic of the old show, if you never watched it, Superman always fought some sort of "gangsters". They would always show them "shooting" him, but he would always yawn or something as the "bullets" were bouncing off his chest. But no matter what, they would always throw the gun at him after it was out of bullets and he would always dodge it. We used to get a kick out of it

[stephenvegas]

gwffantrav said:

I definitely want to check it out. I still remember as a kid growing up in the 70s being fascinated by how a guy who played Superman, was killed/killed himself/whatever.

Just curious, from the looks, it looks like they couldn't show the "S" insignia from the commercials....I could be wrong though. Is that the case?

Also, just on topic of the old show, if you never watched it, Superman always fought some sort of "gangsters". They would always show them "shooting" him, but he would always yawn or something as the "bullets" were bouncing off his chest. But no matter what, they would always throw the gun at him after it was out of bullets and he would always dodge it. We used to get a kick out of it

Yeah, I heard you're correct GWFfanTrav that they were not allowed to show Superman's S on the trailers/commercials. But Superman's "S" is still shown in the movie itself.

[blueraider1]

they may never find out the real story.