Change Your Image
Peter Elefant
Reviews
WALL·E (2008)
Too many short circuits for grown ups
Looking for a movie, that your kids will love and adore? Look no further. This'll do the trick.
Looking, for something for the whole family? This movie fails.
This movie could have been so much more! It could have easily been amongst PIXARs bravest and best! The story pitch really suggested that they were ready to try something new; something bold. Imagine:
A love story between two robots. 'Real' robots, that is, without the physical human attributes found in other animation features like, well, 'Robots', set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Earth.
If one can accept that pre-programmed machines are able to feel love (and that concept was good enough for Kubrick!), this would truly be a movie for the grown ups, investigating that strange, obviously platonical romance between two 'artificials' (echoing the likes of 'Blade Runner'). Two man-made objects, seeking each others companionship in a desolate world of human remains. An idea of such fragile beauty, that one could throw in quite a lot of robo-stick comedy (you know, for the kids!), and still leave something for the everyone. Children wouldn't understand the haunting quality of a dusty wasteland, inexplicably void of people, nor would they get the love story; they'd just enjoy a robot falling on it's metal bum.
It never became that movie. The end product abandons the pioneering spirit of the original idea, and the movie falls back on clichés, predictable gags and an eco-message so heavily stamped in our faces throughout the story, that it becomes borderline sickening, by the end of the film.
The problems are obvious from the get-go: The visual design of WALL-E himself is annoying. He's mainly a dwarfed version of Johnny 5 from 'Short Circuit', with the big dark eyes from "Puss In Boots" ('Shrek 2'). The design reeks of "play it safe" producing: It's obvious that some producer "liked the wicked idea", and then demanded something that was
a) done before b) something cute.
WALL-E is cute; Cute as step-dancing penguins, another safe bet with an ego message.
More annoyingly: this lonely robot is in fact not alone. A cockroach, has befriended him. It's called 'Cri-Kee'. Wait. Sorry. That was the name of the cricket in 'Mulan'. Easy to get confused these days...
This benign, loyal side-kick serves no narrative purpose, and seems present only because side-kicks are demanded in these kinds of movies. Again, you can see the producer's memo: "Love this story, Jones! But.. could the lonely robot perhaps be not entirely alone?"
It wouldn't be fair to discount WALL-E because of cuddle-factor or lack of original design, and that's not his primal malfunction: His problem is that he's a freak! A strange robot, that collects artifacts from an alien (human) civilization, and studies it, caught up in his own lonely despair.
SO when the other main character, EVE, arrives, he immediately starts following her, dragging her around, oblivious as to whether she's 'there' or not.
Okay, I'm being a cynic. The part between the two robots actually works! She's an advanced model, way out of his league, what plays into a "uptown girl, downtown boy" kind of romance. Also EVE is by far the funniest character in the movie (the girl has a temper).
WALL-E attempts to impress EVE, with generic slapstick montage sequences to follow. They're predictable, but would again be harmless, if we had any incentive to root for WALL-E, and his desperate wooing of EVE. Being cute/clumsy just doesn't cut it as interesting character traits, and he fails to be likable.
"Puss in Boots" was also adorable, but also quite deranged in his delusions of grandeur, while self-conscious enough, to use his fluffy-factor, when in a tight spot. WALL-E lacks those comedic layers, and his effectuation for EVE seems desperate.
If the first half of the movie is patchy, that's nothing compared to the second half, where EVE travels back to the spaceship she came from (WALL-E ever desperately clinging on to her).
We now see what has happened to humanity, and the second part seems more engulfed with them, and their dependency upon technology. People have become insanely overweight, uneducated and complacent. They now rely on machines to take care of everything from food to control of their spaceship.
The satire seems thick. Yes, there are overweight Americans. Yes some Americans are less educated. But to suggest that the human race has become stupid, fat and irresponsible, is just a bit thick for me.
EVE and WALL-E become tools in a story bigger than them, and their own romance is drowned. Arguably, by then you'll be happy to look at anyone/thing but WALL-E. I know I was!
People might say:
"Look at how simple the story is! Enjoy the beauty of it!"
I respectfully disagree. I think they should have gone all out, and created an even simpler story, between two robots. What would have been PIXAR's most mature work yet, becomes it's most simple.
This movie seems overproduced, caved in by the fear of what the public might want. They seem to have been desperate to make this feel good politically correct picture, right down to the notion that even though some machines might be "faulty", they can still help you.
To conclude: In the end it turns out, that there's not much in 'WALL-E' that hasn't been seen before. Judging by PIXAR standard this movie is just not 'that complete package', that we've come to expect from 'Toy Story', and 'Finding Nemo'. It remains a visually stunning, tragically empty shell, seriously lacking a courageous, wicked ghost.
Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 (2007)
9 of 10 as long as the following is understood:
... This deserves a 9 out of 10 seen as an amateur/amateurish project. I completely agree with other posts that this short at times surpasses the best fights in STAR WARS (all of them). As with part one it has an inventiveness and a wry sense of humor, which makes it worth watching, and I don't mean that in the "It's fun because they did the best they could" way. It really IS entertaining.
The plot is... well non-existent, and plot wise a duplicate of the first one. Two characters fight to the death with light sabers. What this brings is not only a compact STAR WARS action sequence, but also the hope for a future generation of sci-fi geeks: Anything is possible.
Keep going you guys! This video is viewable from YOUTUBE - where it has been posted by the producers.
The Wednesday Play: Cathy Come Home (1966)
Is Ken Loach the most depressed man in the world?
What to say about this one? Heartbreaking, bleak, hopeless take on unemployment and overpopulation in England. It's not overindulging, it's not constructed, it just is, which makes it even worse to watch.
Basically you'll be watching the slow disintegration of this young couple that falls in love and tries to start a family. What begins as a love story, ends up exposing a social security system, completely incapable of handling the overpopulation, or the people it affects.
It's depression in film form. But to Loach's great credit, the point, the punch of this movie, never feels strained. If you liked this (if you thought it was good that is), My Name is Joe could be next Loach film you should look into.
Reconstruction (2003)
Same problem as with "It's all about Love"
I remember an Empire review of "It's All about Love" that asked, if it was actually a film, we were not ready for? Well if it is, the same thing can be said about "Reconstruction". Following the trend of Nicolas Winding Refns (superior) "Fear X", and before mentioned Thomas Winterberg flop, Danish directors have discovered David Lynch.
This movie is co-written by film academy teacher Mogens Rukov (Also responsible for writing "It's All about Love"), and you can't help wondering if that's "what's in fashion" when it comes to the director/producer line of that particular education, these years.
Perhaps I should summarize the movie, but fact is that I didn't really get it. That's not really the problem. (Well it is for me, obviously! I'm the dumb one!). The problem is that I did not really care. You know those movies you see five times, that just seem to have that "HUH?!"-factor, making you want to see them again and again (Pink Floyd - The Wall, 2001: A Space Odessey... anything Ken Russell.. etc)? Well this doesn't.
Lacking the visual style (and more importantly) the quirky characters of David Lynch, this film remains cold and empty.
For all it's weirdness, at the heart of it you'll find a boring love-triangle, between a writers wife and a young 30s something, who in the process of choosing between the wife and his girlfriend, deconstructing his life, isolating himself from his life, family, friends and so on and so forth. It's all very surreal, but to tell you the truth, who really cares about beautiful young people, playing Eenie, Meenie, Mini, Moe with other peoples feelings. It may be modern, like it's surrealistic structure, but engaging it ain't.
... Come to think of it, you know what this is? It's probably one of those "We've gotten lost in society and we cannot communicate with others or find our way" kinda movies. If you're into that, may I recommend "BLEEDER" by Nicolas Winding Refn? It's not as high on it's own "If you thought you've seen weird movies, then forget what you know or think you know!!!!!!!!!!"-script, but it has better cinematography, it actually cares about the subject and Nicolas Winding Refn dedicated the movie to his mom! (That's a 10 on the Aww-o-meter, folks!).
For everyone not Danish - the review ends here. The next bit is an internal memo to my countrymen. Thank you for reading! Dear Danes. Two things for your consideration:
1.
I know that Danish films doesn't have a lot of money to spend on production. But try on the hypnotic "SULT" (Henning Carlsen) or the very serious "At Kende Sandheden" (Nils Malmros)... It IS possible to film more than just Grey corridors, and close-ups in dark-white bars! It can be done! I know that Denmark is probably THE depression capital of the world (Personified in Bille August), but we also have Trier and Refn. People who at least TRY to visualize their stories (Yes, also Trier, even though he cares by not caring). We can do this! We can! We just need to be not quite so lazy! And that goes for you as well Per Fly!
2.
Dear Mogens Rukov. You have done enough for us, by educating some of the bright minds of the Danish movie industry. There is no need to write new movies as well. And should you feel like writing more of these types of movies, please wait - wait till the world IS ready.
Chow lok yuen (2003)
It´s bad when you think "Why?"
... And this film is good for only that. At an amuzement park a little girl falls from one of the attractions, and dies. This shots down the park, but some year later a boy goes out to the shut down amuzement park. Who he is, or why he really wants to go there, noone knows. He goes missing. Who takes him or why, noone knows. Then his annoying sister wakes up, and decides to go find him. Why noone knows, he´s been missing for quite some time. Who she is? Well she´s the sister ofcourse. She teams up with some friends, and from here on the movie steals from every single film, that the writer could think of. Small kids with dolls, themepark built on cemetary, DV cameras that can record what isn´t there, evil clowns, and a mutant and his son, who´s just basicly up to no good. Oh yeah. It even has a "Surprising ending".
What a piece of garbage. This and "Mutant Dog" must be the worst I´ve ever seen. 1 out of 10.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Naah!
Good start about the soldier training, weak ending in Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket never raises itself over other war movies. It's cold, distant, cynical look at war, seen through the eyes of... cold, distant cynical Private Joker, sadly makes it uninteresting to watch the war part. It seems a random act (!) of dying soldiers and quickfired rounds. But by then you've lost interest already. Well I had at least.
6 out of 10, where five is average.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Final chapter
Spoilers ahead. Yes, I am that kind of guy.
The Matrix revolutions picks up immediately after The Matrix Reloaded. Neo is caught in a world between the matrix and the real. A trainstation largely run by the Merovingian. After some... persuation by the lovely Trinity (Well until she pulls a gun to your temple), Neo is set free, and our heros now home to defend Zion, a city under threat of annihalation by the machines.
Neo, getting advise from the, now changed oracle (due to the tragic death of actress Gloria Foster) ... (Morten you twit, when is a death NOT tragic!?), sets out for the Machine city with Trinity (and that's one heck of a city, if you don't mind my saying so folks!!), and Morpheus, captain Niobe our videogame friend Ghost, and others set home, to defend the city.
Meanwhile Agent (or should I say former agent?) Smith is taking over the Matrix, assimilating everyone (and -thing) in his way. (A true yet extreme communist).
And then the battle begins. Everything that has a beginning has an end.
I have mixed feelings about this film. On one hand I feel that the Wachowski Brothers have done right in this trilogy. Rules apply and they are following them to perfection. A trilogy must expand. Number one has the advantage of surprisal. Number two is must be bigger, faster, harder, still expanding the universe (Something forgotten in most trilogies. Like Jurassic Park, who cares if there's a bigger lizard?) Number three is the hardest, because you are concluding the story. Sacrifices have been made, and it is time to show what they have been made for.
The Matrix was the most surprising, and therefor the best. It dealt with discovering what is real and not, and accepting this.
The Matrix Reloaded was an expansion of the universe, and the ideas within the story are drawn out. This movie concerns itself with the next logical step. You have found out who and what you are. Now you must make choices.
The Matrix Revolutions deals with love and death. The choices have been made, it is time to find out what you are fighting for, and carry out what you must do.
The trouble with The Matrix Revolutions is that too many loose ends remain when you have watched the film. You are disorientated, thinking: Who was Neo? Who was agent Smith? Who was who? Who am I? (This you don't really think, I just made that question up).
The brothers leave behind too many questions, and too many loose ends. They fall back on too many "old tricks of the industry", thus making the story of some of the characters predictable. There are some scenes in the film, that are just there for no reason.
The Merovingian is threatened by Trinity to hand over Neo. This happens with a gun to his temple. Trinity shows that she really loves Neo, which is fine. Just... we already knew that, now didn't we? So why do we have to watch Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph fight themselves all her way there?
The ending just becomes too gritty. What I always hated about StarTrek is that they always seemed to get saved in the last minute, by some technical gimmimanot, and using fancy words they explained themselves out of everything. This exact problem is what Revolutions suffers from. It get's TOO fantastic and TOO amazing, thus losing the audience completely. By the end fight, between Mr. Anderson and agent (or is that... former agent?) (Shut up, Morten you're repeating yourself) Smith, you know that something fantastic is going to happen. You just haven't a clue who is who and why.
On the other hand the effects are gorgeous. The Wachowski Brothers delivers what they promished, when they said they would do something new every time. Trust me. They did. The battle of Zion is one that I personally think makes the dreadfully boring Battle of Helms Deep look like a Jerry Springer stage fight (or whatever - I just liked this battle better, ok?!!)
They keep the philosophy in the mix between sophisticated and simple, so everyone can follow, and they stay as much away from the Matrix as they can. Everything can now be done in the Matrix, as long as Neo is doing it, so why watch, right? Right.
I think the ending to The MATRIX trilogy is decent. Some storypoints pull it down, while every single effect raises it to a level, where other films just seem to never get. My judgment is 8/10. Everything that has a beginning has an end... and you've never seen an ending like this.
Daredevil (2003)
How dare they?
Bad film. The script is so and so but all seen before. The acting is well... uninspired. The directing is... bad, which makes the story fragmented (Oh we need to introduce the action-heros love.. she's a tough girl.. hmm... oh I've got it! Let's have a fight in a schoolyard!!).
This story is stupid to say the least. That much can be forgiven. But boring is unacceptable.
3/10 where 5 is average.
Hart's War (2002)
Well-thought
Actually I cannot agree with other users, stating that this film is over-cliched and sappy. Actually I found it quite stimulating, because people are not what you think they are in this one. The german camp-leader is humoures and has a pleasent side to his nastiness. The "I-can-get-it-for-ya" guy is a racist. And so on and so forth. The plot is not what you think. Not only war, not only prison, not only trial.
I liked it.
8/10
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)
Suicide comedy
Synopsis:
Wilbur (Jamie Sives) wants to die, kind of. So every now and then he tries to commit suicide. You know: Pills, wrist slitting, hanging that sort of thing.
He has nothing that ties him to life, but a brother named Harbour.
The brother (Adrian Rawlins) owns a book store, which was left to him by his father. He's a friendly, charming and responsible man, who's flirting with one of two regular costumers, a girl name Alice.
Alice (Shirley Henderson) is a lonely woman, who works as cleaning personal in a hospital, in order to support her daughter Mary (Lisa McKinlay).
Well. Girl meets book store owner, and they fall in love or whatever. So they get married. Meanwhile Wilbur continues his obsession with trying to end himself. The thing about Wilbur is, that he has sex-appeal which is quite... well... appealing. And don't think that Alice hasn't noticed.
Which creates the dilemma, doesn't it? Do we want the older, responsible, nice, kind, calm brother, or his sexual beast of an opposite, Wilbur?
--------------
My review
Set in beautiful, but depressing Scotland, Lone Scherfig (The director of Dogma 8: Italiensk for begyndere) has made a small film about love. The story itself is pretty average, but the way this film treats suicide, and the absurdity of wanting to finish life, makes it worth watching. The film is made with subtle humor, tenderness and love.
Well acted this one is. I liked the characters. It is well filmed, also. Almost every scene takes place in the bed, in the bathroom, in the book store, or the hospital. All places, that cry out desperate decadence. You can actually sence death in the scenery, which is no coincidence. A major theme of this film is death and - as a direct consequence - life.
What is not so good about this film is, that it is about virtually nothing. There is almost no development, and unlike films of who are kindred in pace (Virgin Suicides, The Ice Storm) the story is way too structured, and too narrow to just watch and experience. There is a point this film is trying to make, which is a shame. A bit less narrative could have done a film, which is about so little, very good.
Still it is a good film. Very good. I am beginning to use 5 as average. 10 as perfect and 1 as complete rubbish. And giving that, I will give "Wilbur wants to die/Wilbur begår selvmord" 8. A lot of thought and care has gone into this little film, and it does show. From good cinematografy and a good script, to a well polished, melancholic score, this film is worth viewing. It won't kill you, even if you will.
8 of 10.
Insomnia (2002)
Not a bad effort (SPOILERS)
I enjoyed Insomnia, because it is a story that is all too ordinary, and then again not.
Begins pretty obvious. Two hot shot detectives arrive in small town, trying to solve a murder. One very smart, one very slick.
The murder victim is a 17-year old girl. She's been beaten to death, and then, afterwards, washed and cleansed. It seems to be first victim of a serial-killer.
Luckily they are pretty clever, these detectives, so they lure the murderer into a ingenious trap, which fails, sadly.
But this is where the story takes a turn. One of the detectives (played by Al Pacino) is a little too clever. He's a bad good-guy, which has been a little too clever with the evidence in his early career, and the thing is, that his partner knows about it. And to make things even worse Internal Affairs are hot on his trail, and his partner is pretty sure that he's going to tell everything in order to save his own neck.
It's very foggy were the trap is set, and in all of the confusion (And all of the fog), Al Pacino shoots his partner. Maybe intentional. Maybe not.
Fact of the matter is, that when he is to give testimony, he tells a(nother) little white lie about how the shooting went down. No reason not to blame the murderer, right? He's a murderer anyway, you see.
But the night after, Al Pacinos character can't sleep. He's suffering from insomnia, constantly rethinking the events that led to his partners death.
That's when the murderer (Robin William) calls him. Seems the two of them have something in common now. None of them can sleep, and they both seem to have "accidently" killed someone.
The rest I will leave for you to enjoy as I did. You will see a thriller that could be pretty ordinary, but is saved by a good director, being the magnificent Christopher Nolan. Nolan understands to show - not overdo - subjective storytelling, where we are to understand why it's not a great thing not to sleep for 6 days or so.
Al Pacino. Well. He's good old Al. A great character-actor, which I find interesting to watch.
Robin Williams acting in this one I am very conflicted about. I didn't find him very scary. He seems a pathetic character, in the way you think of William H. Macys character in Fargo. But then again, maybe that's the whole point? Portraying a man which seems to be "Just a smart man that made a mistake". If so, he hasn't enough screentime.
Be it Robin Williams performance, or be it lack of twists in the story, I found the ending quite anticlimactic and kinda ordinary. That is why you should view this film as entertaining, not as film-study.
As entertainment it's pretty good, though. 8.
The Elephant Man (1980)
Wonderful film
It is a great story, and it is well percieved and executed. There are many references and beautiful pictures. But one could have hoped that Lynch had gotten over his "Erasorhead" fever and grown up. It is annoying to see such a straight story infected with pop-surrealism. Another director would have suited this film.
9/10
Donnie Darko (2001)
Dark DARKER DARKO
This film is disturbing, amazing, fantastic. I've just seen it once, but I'm going to have to watch it again and again. It is about a mentally troubled 15 year old, and his life in the 1980's contemporary America. Donnie Darko is his name, and he's made a new friend: Frank - the giant bunny rabbit.
Frank is telling Donnie that the world will end in 28 days.
Richard Kelly has made a modern masterpiece. There can be no doubt about it. Incredibily filmed, well directed. DONNIE DARKO keeps switching between surreal horror and a intense drama. Thanks to the suburb looks and action of Jake Gyllenhaal, you really care about this boy, and what is happening to him.
It's like there is something definitly not right, in this right world of jesus-freaks, surburban comfort and that fat girl from school, noone will ever talk to. Donnie has been seeing stuff, and lately... Frank has been telling him to do things... Dark things.
I find myself without words now. This film is one of the best I've ever seen.
10/10
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
This was a great film, when I was a little one...
And it still is. I think it's a welldone thriller, about an intelligent woman, escaping a sociapathic husband. It has everything I need in a thriller, including Julia Roberts, which is well casted for this film. You need a woman that is bitchy (because of dark past) and delicate, fragile at the same time.
This film is AT LEAST an 8/10
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
In the clash of the titans---
Peter Jackson is running with two points, leaving Chris Columbus with 1, and George Lucas with zero.
Let me not praise this film too much, but just reassure you, that this is a good film. If you don't like the action, you'll love the scenery. If nothing of that does it for ya, you've gotta admire the acting. The only thing that I found just a tad boring was the soundtrack-part, but that's me. AND LET ME SAY THIS!!!! People, who gave this film 1, have shown themselves not only to be film-analfabeticals, but also the soul reason, why a democracy will never truly work.
10/10
The Godfather (1972)
What are you people thinking????
I noticed that this was the best rated film in this place a couple of months ago, so naturally, I decided to give it at shot. But I just don't get what attracts you folks to it?
The character-draving is pretty weak, and you don't really get to go inside the heads of the gangsters. The pictures are pretty ordinary and the whole storyline is... well... boring.
I mean no disrespect or anything, but maybe this is to old folks, what the first King Kong film was to my great granfather... Maybe I'm just part of a next generation... Or maybe.. A next step in the evolution. A superman! A mastermind! Maybe I'm going to be king of the hill! Top of the heap! Maybe I need to find some sleep.
Sorry. This one did nothing for me, but if you're high on gangsters, this is definitly the one for you.
6/10.
I'd love to hear from you folks that thinks this is Gods gift to movies.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Indeed a musical for people who don't like musicals.
What a spin! Moulin Rouge! is beyond anything ever before. A perfect mixture of love and musical, drama and dance, comedy and cabaret. It uses whatever it likes from modern music, and tosses away everything it doesn't like about musicals and theater. (Eat this Saturday Night Fever!)
The images strike you first, with amazing zooms and spins and cuts, the story is highly paced and perfectly timed with the charming, funny and sometimes even heartwarming. (Wait a second. Gonna shed a little tear here)
The plot is downright idioticly simple, but the mixture of different genres and funny twists, the anarchy and the daring, makes you forget that. Hell. The lovestory of this film is topped only by pieces such as "Edward Scissorhands" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula". And right now, even that seems debatable!
The actors are all great, and they perfectly portray the image of good, evil, love, desire and most of all SHOWTIME!!!
Baz Luhrmann has overdone himself this time, and it seems to me, that his career can ONLY be downhill from here.
10/10 - shut up and go see the movie.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
This is first....
This movie is a mile-stone. No doubt about it. Only one thing bugs me, and naturally, me being hung over and all, it's gonna be what I focus on in this review. A word to directors, producers and film-folks alike:
Don't ever make a movie about real people, if you can't portray real people. The mimic of the "Actors" varies too much. Most of them look like Louise Fletcher on a good day, and Keanu Reeves on a really bad. It just doesn't work. Instead it makes you think that maybe, this film should have been delayed a couple of years.
The story is japanese, so forget about it. It's about the earth having a spirit, and some spirits not having an earth, and some people killing the spirits as they kill them, on the earth because they don't know they don't have an earth, or actually, we can't really call their planet earth now can we?
The story is confusing, like a straigthened "AKIRA". And that loses alot of regular folks. The Manga-fans, however are gonna love it.
I give it an 8/10, which sucks, because the animation itself is astounding. I just wasn't moved.
The Ninth Gate (1999)
The directing of Roman Polanski is starting to annoy me...
There's this trader of books, that's ordered to investigate an occult work, supposedly made by some insane satanist and the devil herself. And then everything becomes occult and so on and there's a lot of atmosphere, but no lightning. You know what I'm saying?
It's like Roman Polanski is a master of suspence, but that's just not enough. He builds and builds, but never really releases. Show us the devil, damn it. Do something!! Instead of letting us sit there in the dark thinking "Oh well".
Johnny Depp is great in this film, as he has been, in every film he's been cast for. And that helps - a lot.
It's 8/10, because the suspence is there. It'd be 10/10 if we would have some release.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
The greatest love-story of all time...
...Adapted to the screen. Count Dracula defies and denies God, when his beloved throws herself in the river, after having heard false news of his death. Therefor he becomes a vampire, a damned creature forced to wander the night, sucking blood, praying on people... sorta like a nocturnal lawyer.
So anyways, you know the story, let's not dwell in that. Let's talk about how Coppola made this film, one of the most beautiful at it's time, using great ambience and lightness in it's pictures. Many people think it's a horror-film, but compared to "I know what you did last summer", "Scream" and other abominations, Dracula is so elegant by comparasing.
The story suffers a little from the adaption. There is a lot of so on and so forth, and many of the characters seem weakly drawn, and vague. Directors have to remember that NO we did not read that seven thousand page epic of a story, before entering the cinema. This is, at times, forgotten by the director of this film.
But who cares? With Oldman, Hopkins, Ryder, Reeves and even Tom Waits, you tend to let the story slip out your mind, as you enjoy the violent, beautiful pictures, and the wonderful gothic score of Wojciech Kilar, ending with "Lovesong for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox, the greatest lovesong of all.
You're gonna see this one, and you're gonna love it.
9/10
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
I live in Denmark so...
naturally the whole sex thing wasn't really interesting. Nor was the plot, but that must be me not getting it. It usually is.
No, the reason that I think you should see this film is the camerawork of the film. It really has an interesting feel to it.
So. You won't like this if you're not into art, hard-to-get-plots and deep psychological undertones. It's a very different 7.
The Cannonball Run (1981)
One of my childhood favourites.
I don't know why this film makes me laugh. I really don't. Did I, I'd tell you! I would!! But I can't. I can't defend this immoral film about a crazy bunch of speeders, razing across America in pursuit of... fun!! There's nothing to it, but a great cast from the 80's and a lot of good-willed humour. (That and some BADLY filmed fighting, by a young Jackie Chan).
If you like Police Academy, you're gonna love this one! Honest!
I give it an 8.
Masters of the Universe (1987)
COME ON PEOPLE!!!!
Nononono!!! You can't just trash one of the most important childhood-memories since Star Wars!! It's HE-MAN for Christ's sake!! You know?! The Super-duper strongman, who battles Sceletor over the power of the universe and stuff!!! In this film, however, they move to earth in pursuit of a MAGIC KEY!! IT JUST DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER!!!!
I give this one an 8, as it's fun to watch, and nothing more. It's like THE MUMMY RETURNS: Great entertainment, with powerful heros and villians, but no fun for your average Woody Allen fanatic.
8 8 8 - so.. I'm a mental morron!
Cast Away (2000)
Yaddayaddayadda
Can you do me a favour and look at the User Comment from:
Gazzer-2 USA
That's entered on:
Date: 20 January 2001
And is titled:
"Live, From A Deserted Island, It's The Tom Hanks Show!"
It's exactly how I feel, and is what I call an 8 in my book. Well-written-stuff... Go read, please. Go go go...
Red Planet (2000)
Naaah...
It starts of really well, this one. Scientists search Mars for a new place to live. The future of humanity rests in their hands. With them they have this little gadgetmoblob of a machine, lend to them by the marine-corps. It looks kinda like an electric cat, and it's very well done, computergraphics-wise...
And then they have problems... And then the machine goes beserk... And then they discover something on Mars...
It all must have looked great on paper, but there's really nothing to the story. It just draws out forever, and as there's little character - in the characters - nothing draws you.
There are a lot of flaws, which could have been avoided, by studying physics AND biologi. This is annoying also.
I give a 6 for okay effects, and a good buildup. Still, this one is less than viewable, unless you've been drunk the night before.