David Thewlis, Gary Oldman, & Oliver replies

[ripleywriter at aol.com]

Sharon wrote:
<<I love Oliver, too!  He plays a great comic relief role in the PoA 
book-- yearning for the Quidditch cup in his last year at Hogwarts. >>

Not just comic relief, but you really have something to root for and you 
really want them to win, plus the dynamic between the team always makes me 
want to play team sports. ;-)  Oliver is a key role in a key plot: 
Quidditch--the dementors show up--Harry learns to make a patronus, etc. 

Of course, I always play it safe and look at the movies with the knowledge 
that to me, they are only an entertaining side dish to the books which 
started everything. It all comes back to the series and what J.K. writes.

The problem with the movies is they suck out a lot of the heart, even if they 
don't meant to. Visually they're stunning, and a lot of the casting is 
ridiculously fabulous, but as a movie lover and someone interested in all the 
things that go into making a movie, the HP films have a lot of flaws. The 
writing is only one. 

I saw CoS the movie before I read the book and once I read the book, I wonde
red, what the hell was that scene with the flying car? What was the point? 
But I know that's something other people have noticed, too...

And then there are flaws that could, and really should, have been avoided. 
Such as Dumbledore being present at the Quidditch match in SS/PS. That was 
glaring not only because it went against the book's logic, but the logic of 
the movie itself. But that's an old complaint of mine ;-)

Thanks BM for the rec to see Seven Years in Tibet, I'll pick that up and I 
shall see for myself how much David Thewlis is capable of not being a slime 
ball. *g* I really want to like him, I do. But I don't. So maybe a good 
character of his will change that. 

You know what's strange...I can see Gary Oldman as the terrifying version of 
Sirius Black, totally, who couldn't? But then when we get to protective, 
godfather Sirius (who I much prefer, of course), I really have a tough time 
seeing the softer side Oldman. Hm. Just an afterthought...

And to VJH, I might see about Besieged, too. Now how about a cuddly Gary 
Oldman flick? lol...Not cuddly, obviously, but something where he's, like, 
*not* evil? :-P

To Anne U's comments, no, I didn't know about the conversations concerning 
Oldman's casting, and I read your post after the comments I made above, so 
obviously I have some doubts of my own. *g* In a nutshell, what issues were 
brought up? 

And Ralph Fiennes, wow, now there's another good Lupin. I seriously need to 
see one of those Thewlis movies 'cause the more actors I hear of that would 
be fantastic as Remus, the more I shudder at the thought of he who played 
King Einon as Lupin. 

Melly