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Just saw this for the first time. Not sure what the big deal was, but I finally appreciate Sharon Stone... absolutely smoking in this movie. The plot is total crap though, you see Ms. Stone kill a guy in the first scene (not a spoiler) and then at the end of the film (here comes a semi-spoiler) the big twist is that she did kill him and there is no twist. Piss-poor performance by Michael Douglas too; this could have been any Channel 5 erotic thriller i used to watch in my room with the volume down when I was 14. What happened to Eurotrash, by the way? What an amazing show. Maybe you can get it on DVD. Antoine De Caunes is probably pretty old now... he's got to be a silver fox, what a player. Ahem, anyway i give this 2 thumbs up out of 5.
I'll do some quick reviews to save time...
Flash Gordon I'm Brian Blessed! In space! 5/5 Flesh Gordon Oh my god, the sex ray from the planet porno made me want to get naked! But who will fly the plane? Slightly Disturbing/5 Barbarella Inaccurate portrayal of space travel. Nice boobs. 2/5 Doom They were so busy making clever references to the game they forgot to make the movie any good at all. Rock bottom/5 King Kong Monkeys don't grow that big. Minus 5 points. 0/5 Casablanca Humphrey Bogart. Small man syndrome. Here's looking at you kid/5 Mean Girls If you do touch each other, you WILL get chlamydia. And die. Stop trying to make felch happen/5 Hook RUFIO/5 Jurassic Park Watch this movie and count how many times Sam Neill fondles the children. At one point he even teabagged a Velociraptor. I don't know how but life found a way. MUST GO FASTER/5 was ok. Not too high-thinking - not too low, has substance to back it up. You probably have to be in the right mood and let it take you along the trip.
(Not to mention it's refreshing to have a total diversion from sex, serial killers, druggers and robbers, terrorists, law drama and romantic comedies.) A drinking game (contains spoilers): One sip every time they fall over. Empty your drink when Ernesto has an asthma attack. Which is the greater immorality, a film
that shows fictionalized violent serial killing, or one that glorifies a real life sadistic killer? Solaris (2002 remake) - Not quite a disaster, so Steven Soderbergh can get some credit for that, but this is still far inferior to Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 film.
Simplifying the subject matter, improving the production design somewhat (alhough some of it comes off worse), and focusing the film more on the characters of george clooney and his wife, Soderbergh's film is still a cut above most regular sci-fi fare but without the final 15 min of the original (and in particular the last shot), it doesnt come together as it should. Clooney is impressive, but Jeremy Davies is an absolute disgrace and appears to have come in from a different film. I know a lot of people find th eoriginal dull, but I found this to be the duller out of the two, despite being 60 min shorter. 6/10 The Trial - A flawed film from a mad genius is the best way to describe this. Orson Welles' take on Kafka's famous novel is mind bogglingly original and equally frustrating at the same time. It is amazing from a technical standpoint, perhaps even more so than Kane was at the time, but it doesnt all quite gel as it should. And you can see the influences on a whole number of films, especially Brazil. 7.5/10 In Good Company - Above average feel good movie with decent acting (although I wasnt convinced with Topher Grace in the lead role). It avoids quite a few cliches, surprisingly, but even still you can get your cliche book out and tick through most of them. Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson are good (which is a relief in terms of Scarlett after her abysmal performances in The Island and A Good Woman) in their roles. 6/10 Blow UP - Michaelangelo Antonioni's most famous film might be slightly dated but it's still one very very good movie. Taking a very simple plot, Antonioni weaves a very mesmerising movie with a handful of extremely memorable scenes. And I havent seen the camera move so fluidly in quite a while. I dont quite get the orgy scene though, it's tame by today's standards and doesnt really seem to have a point. 7.5/10 A History of Violence - An extremely well made movie by David Cronenberg. The overall story is a bit simple but the performances, direction and script (as distinct from plot) are first rate. It is also dripping with subtext but Cronenberg never lets all that get in the way of the main narrative. Fine film that falls short of greatness, but is well worth seeing. 7.5/10 Madagascar - unllike some of the other animated films, this is aimed squarely at kids and even then it's pedestrian compared to pixar's output. They need more of the penguins, they were actually funny. And the animation was ugly. 3/10 Primer - After rewatching the last 15 min and then rewatching that part again with the director's commentary, I get most of it now except a few minor details. So, it's a movie about time travel with some very neat ideas and concepts but, in all reality, featuring a very messy script. I'm against the dumbening down of a script for the audience, especially when characters detail out information that they never would in actuality, but this went far beyond that to the point of incomprehensibility. A good script would have been able to dramatize its core ideas, this merely talks about them. Still, worth checking out for the ideas. 6.5/10 About a Boy - I could just substitute my review for In Good Company above, except I would rate this slightly higher since it's a little less 'happy' and the script slightly more witty. Was not at all surprised to discover that it's by the same director. 6.5/10 Band of Outsiders - another meandering film from Jean Luc godard but unlike some of his other meandering ones, this one is fairly dull. Has some nice atmosphere, but apart from that is fairly underwhelming in most departments.
5/10 Good Night and Good Luck - Sheer brilliance. I'm not going to comment any further apart from saying it's a must see film. 9.5/10 I wanna see it. Prolly'll see it whether it's good or not, it has Malcolm Reynolds in it! Firefly 43v3r w00t! <3 czg
Grand Hotel - I was extremely surprised to learn that this was made in 1932. The narrative here is fairly complex for an early talkie. If I had to guess I would have gone with early 40's.
Anyway, I found this quite enjoyable, some nice plot developments which I wasnt expecting. Part of the ending is a bit silly and some aspects a bit dated but overall it was well worth watching. 7/10 The Killer - some nice action sequences like Hard Boiled (although that probably had one of the best in the hospital scene), but not much else at all. I still think Face Off is Woo's best because he had some semblance of a narrative there (not that it was all that earth shattering but it was there). Then again Face Off was missing the kind of kinetic action sequences on display here. Also, I've come across a few dvds of this film (and Hard Boiled) and all of them, while claiming to have dts and 5.1, sound hollow. Proper DD or DTS would improve the impact of those action sequences a lot. 5/10 Kingdom of Heaven - Blah. Boring, dull, woefully directed movie by Ridley Scott. And I never thought I'd say this, but it's also poorly shot by Ridley.
A lot of flak was directed towards Orlando Bloom but he doesnt really have to do much and its the script and direction that are the main culprits. The pacing is incredibly wrong and everyone seems to be walking around not knowing what the whole thing is trying to achieve. Stuff like this, Troy, Alexander and King Arthur make a decent, but flawed, film like Gladiator look like a masterpiece. 3.5/10 Point Blank - B movie crime script given to an 'Arty' director who gives it A grade style, but not enough to drag it out of the B grade. Woefully remade 30 yrs later as Payback (with Mel Gibson), this is at least an always interesting film if not entirely successful. Lee Marvin is good in the title role and the psychedelic direction by John Boorman is akin to Martin Scorsese's methods in his Cape Fear remake. 6.5/10 Completely agree. Directionless and with some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard. And god I love ham-fisted attempts to make a contemporary political statement in a historical (well sort of) film.
Stuff like this, Troy, Alexander and King Arthur make a decent, but flawed, film like Gladiator look like a masterpiece. Double agreed. Why are the recent crop of epics so damn disappointing? The main problem is in the scripting.
Some of them are overly ambitious IMHO. Like you said, ham fisted attempts to make a contemporary politcial statement in a historical film. I think both KoH and Alexander fall in this category. Others take the best aspects of the story out of the script for various reasons. Troy (the gods) and King Arthur (the arthurian legend) fall in this category. Gladiator, flawed as it was, had a simple story and stuck with it throughout the running time without pretending to be about anything else. I think it also benefited from not trying to revolve around a character/event from history. Secondly, on top of the script, poor casting. Whilst some of the mentioned films cast certain parts well, there was some woeful miscasting present. And although he didnt warrant an oscar for the role, Russell Crowe is in a completely different league to brad pitt, orlando bloom, clive owen and colin farrell when it comes to acting/performing. I say performing because in the end Gladiator was less about acting and more about presence and Crowe understood that. Lastly, I guess the newer ones have to compete with LOTR. They try to emulate/top the battle scenes and in an effort to do that, forget completely about choreographing the battles in an imaginative way. My $0.02 The Driver - A Steve McQueen movie if there ever was one but it doesnt have Steve McQueen. A fairly pedestrian crime film with 1-2 decent car chases, no real plot, uninteresting characters and poor casting.
4.5/10 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Havent read the book but I found it fairly enjoyable, albeit extremely hit and miss. A lot better when it had quirky observational type humour than when it focused on the special effects. 6.5/10 The Road Home - Simple story, nicely told and shot brilliantly by Zhang Yimou. The plot's a bit too contrived and sentimental to be one of his best films, but it's still quite good. 7/10 Femme Fatale - I've always regarded brian de palma as an expert director who works with awful scripts. And this is really no different. Classy direction and storytelling, but they cant hide a C grade script with one of the most ridiculous 'twists' I've seen in a while. 5.5/10 House of Games - Regarded as one of Mamet's best but I just dont see why. The whole thing is extremely predictable (although I'll admit I didnt see the first con coming) and due to some poor casting, the Mamet style of dialogue where everyone talks the same way comes off badly.
5/10 The Astronaut's Wife - textbook example of how not to make a thriller. What should have been a moody, atmospheric polanski type of movie instead opts for needless exposition, making a silly plot just plain ludicrous. Wastes reasonable efforts from Theron and Depp. 3/10 From Hell - Dont usually like to criticise a decent film for not being great but this is one of those exceptions. Good acting (except for a miscast Heather Graham), good premise (if a bit preposterous), good tone and mood, but rather slapdash direction. It's a good film but the potential was there if someone like David Fincher was involved for this to much much better. And I havent read it, but you can just tell that Alan Moore's graphic novel must have been a corker. 7/10 The Jacket - A screenwriting train wreck if there ever was one. It's so convoluted and weak and characters so badly written that it's surprising you can actually sit through the whole thing and not hate it too much by the end. I think Adrien Brody rises well above the material and his performance might be the reason for the above. On another note, at least it's an original script, even if it is a dog. 5.5/10 Serenity - Has a tv feel in almost every department from the characters to the writing to the look to the acting to the effects. But apart from that, I still couldnt get into it Dont know how it made so many top lists of last year. 4.5/10 The 400 Blows - Easily Francois Truffaut's best film out of what I've seen and one of the true classics of cinema. You could loosely describe it as a "coming of age" film but it completely avoids the usual structure of such films and is a cinematic truimph in almost all departments. Guisseppe "Cinema Paradiso" Tornatore should have taken notes. 9/10 showed Kiera's perky little tits, that should raise it to a 7.5, unless you already adjusted for the curve, and it is really a 3.5.
I have to disagree. I didn't find the plot all that convoluted. It was a standard 70's science fiction plot (Gene Wolfe, Phillip Dick, and Kate Wilhem, the great ones), once the time travel aspect is understood, the rest of it pretty much comes together. The character development was minimal for all but Brody's character, as it should be; the story could have been more detailed on why Kiera's life went to pot but that would have bogged things down.
I wasnt referring to convoluted in regards to time travel, like you said it's the standard time travel plot.
How about explaining the sudden romanticism between the two that develops over two seconds, or the sheer bullshitness of her taking him in (yes I know it's christmas eve etc) and the numerous paradoxes that the script fails to address. Sorry if I'm ranting, but I've seen too many half baked scripts lately (also see below). Stay - another pseudo intellectual script that's not as intricate or clever as it thinks it is. Marc Foster seems to realise this and imbues the film with a billion visual tricks, some actually quite nifty. But none of it can really hide the flaws in the script. It's comptetently made and acted, but there's nothing in there that really satisfies you.
5.5/10 Elizabethtown - another turgid mess of a script, this time from Cameron Crowe. Essentially a meandering, lumbering and dull attempt at a coming of age story. Doesnt really give much to the actors to work with and they arent really good enough to rise above the material. 5/10
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