Has anyone seen 'Wings of Desire'...
... and did you like it?
shareYes I've got it on DVD Loved it.
I watched City Of Angels when it first came out on DVD and didn't have very high hopes for it, however I was further disappointed by it. Wim Wenders had much more to say with his film, it was really about Berlin and it's troubled history and people coming to terms with it, as well as some really beautiful moments.
In the absence of any deeper meaning (Nazi history, Berlin wall etc) Brad Silberling just concentrates on the relationship between Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan's characters, this quickly became very dull for me. There was also a lot of visual style over content with the angels all wearing shades, very MTV friendly. My main hope was that people would seek out Wings Of Desire to see what it was like but I think people are perhaps put off by it being mainly black and white and mainly German with English subtitles. I'd like to point out also that Wim Wender's film actually has a happy ending and is much more upbeat than this one.
I've also got Wim Wender's sequel "Faraway So Close", which isn't quite as succesful but has some very interesting parts to it still, with good performances by Nastassia Kinski and Willem Defoe.
I on the other hand care for the Cage remake. I have seen both and I rather go for a realistic 90's approach with people than the very artsy topics of Wings. They have their moments but the 6 minute straight speech Marion gives just turns me off because its very unreal. No screen writer wants that setup and there needs to be action in between those pieces of dialog. Have him say something or different camera angles. Also in my opinion, your take on MTV made me laugh but also I found the concert scenes with the band too long.
Besides I love 80s and 90's movies...and have a thing for Nicholas Cage (The Rock and Con Air)
I agree the concert scenes were too long, I'd attribute that to Wim Wenders being a big music nut.
I'm not saying Wim Wenders walks on water, I'm a big fan of his films generally (and also U2), however Million Dollar Hotel for instance was abysmal.
But I always find his films have some very interesting aspects to them, and this film particularly I found very interesting.
I enjoyed both the Nicolas Cage films you mentioned there but think his more recent films are a bit bland and poorly written.
Ghost Rider was barely OK.
National Treasure films are Da vinci/Indiana Jones fare.
Next - I enjoyed watching it as an inflight movie - I would have resented going to the cinema to watch it though.
Knowing - errm was ok I suppose.
Captain Correlli's Mandolin (ugh!)
He doesn't seem to have done any films recently requiring solid acting like Leaving Las Vegas or Bringing Out The Dead.
And City of Angels I felt was very superficial.
As far as these 2 films go, sometimes I want steak and sometimes I want a cheeseburger.
City of Angels was a cheeseburger to me, and Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage were the cheese in it.
This remake/homage reminds me of the re-telling of Pee Wee getting his bike back in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, when they cast James Brolin as "PW".
I could watch Wings of Desire 20 times and see something different each time.
Watching City of Angels 20 times I would just see the same raybans again.
Don't you think these movies are selling themselves short?
I really think so.
Remember the line in Pink Floyd The Final Cut (about The Wall movie):
"who cares what it's about as long as the kids go".
If you really prefer City Of Angels then fine, as long as you know it's a chesseburger, and it's not being advertised as steak.