Change Your Image
sarahw31
Reviews
Monster (2003)
Biopic of Aileen Wuornos, serial killer.
Mind blowing performance by Charlize Theron, as Aileen Wuornos - highway prostitute and serial killer.
This film succeeds in inspiring sympathy for a woman who was vilified in the American press as a 'Monster', showing that there are two sides to every story.
It also provided an excellent example of why the death penalty does not work as a deterrent.
Christina Ricci played Aileen's girlfriend, Selby, who was not in real life as young and pretty as Ricci. But I agree with comments made by Jenkins that ultimately this was a film that had to make money at the end of the day, and a young, pretty character was far more 'watchable' and provided a startling contrast to the less savoury character of Wuornos, as played by Theron.
Captives (1994)
Wouldn't describe it as a thriller...
CONTAINS SPOILERS
This movie was billed as a thriller, but imo it was more a romance, but with a twist..
Julia Ormand is a dentist working in a prison who becomes attracted to a convicted murderer (Tim Roth). Wonderful chemistry between the two of them. The tables are turned however when she is placed in a compromising position by another inmate because of her involvement with Chaney (Roth).
The Recruit (2003)
Slick, multi-layered thriller.
James Clayton (Colin Farrell) is a computer geek whose father may have been a CIA operative before he went missing in action 12 years ago. James, in need of a father figure, finds one in the shape of Walter Burke (Al Pacino), a veteran agent who taunts him into joining his recruiting "farm" at Langley.
This is a slick movie which pretends to be cleverer than it is. Entertaining enough though. And whatever did happen to Clayton's father? We always seemed on the verge of some revelation, but I was still waiting for this as the credits rolled.
Cold Mountain (2003)
Emotionally draining. A study in human misery.
CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
Am I the only person who found this superbly acted and beautifully shot movie an extremely emotionally draining experience??
I am writing this over a week after seeing this movie, in an attempt to write a review that is objective rather than emotional, but I still can't, so I give up!
I started to sob early on in the movie during the battle scene while watching the soldiers get their faces trampled into the mud, and barely stopped until the end. Zellweger's character provided a relatively tiny bit of 'light relief', but not enough. The misery went on, and on, and on... Sally Swanger getting her fingers jammed in the fence while watching her sons get shot and her husband hanged, lovely woman with baby almost getting raped ( you just knew that this would happen to her again, but next time Inman wouldn't be around to save her ), simple fat banjo player thinking he was posing for a photo just before he was shot and on it went...I think at around this point I sent an sms to a friend asking if it ended well, as although it was undeniably a great movie, I was feeling a bit emotionally 'wrung out'. I only wish they had replied....
I had to stop myself from getting up on my seat and shouting along with Nicole, 'NOOOOOO, INMAN, NOOOOO....'.
Love Actually (2003)
Entertaining comedy/romance that required little thought from the viewer.
Hugh Grant looks gorgeous in this entertaining comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis. It is the story of the love-lifes of eight different couples who are loosely connected. Sounds complicated but it wasn't at all.
Plenty of laughs, although none of it particularly 'clever'. Bill Nighy was hilarious as Billy Mack, washed up rock star, especially in the scene with Ant and Dec. And there was a nice little cameo for Billy Bob Thornton.
Would definitely watch this again, if i had nothing better to do one night, and was feeling particularly brain dead.
Nightwatch (1997)
Chilling, often unpleasant, horror/thriller.
Minor spoilers.
I don't scare easily, but I had trouble sleeping after this one.....
The film begins with some of the creepiest scenes I have ever seen in a film. Super! I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to my kids sing 'This Old Man, he played one......' again.
Ewan MacGregor is Martin, who takes a job as a nightwatchman in a morgue. Nick Nolte is excellent as Inspector Cray, the policeman in charge of finding the necrophiliac serial killer responsible for murdering prostitutes and taking out their eyes. Yeuk! When bodies are tampered with at the morgue, Martin becomes chief suspect, and I was totally fooled by the red-herrings given to disguise who the killer really was.
It's a shame about the fairly standard ending once the killer was revealed, but when I say 'fairly standard' it was still good, just not as good as the rest of the movie.
Gaping plot-hole for me was how the killer engineered Alex's involvement with Martin??
Ice Age (2002)
Average animation.
Spoilers herein.
Ice Age is a nothing-special animated movie.
Watchable, in a no-effort required kind of way, with the odd particularly good scene. Notably the opening sequence with the squirrel and the scene where Diego, the sabre-toothed tiger, 'dies' (which I actually found quite moving....!).
The story is of three mammals, a sloth, a mammoth and a sabre-tooth tiger who find a human child and try to return him to his tribe. The three animals begin their journey as adversaries, but end as friends....yeuk.
One good point was that although most of the animals could talk, the humans could merely grunt.
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Slick, sometimes funny, crime thriller.
Contains spoilers.
George Clooney is Danny Ocean, recently released from prison, who puts together a team of master criminals to rob three Las Vegas Casinos.
He also intends to win back his wife from the casino owner in the process.
Slick, fun remake of the film that brought the Rat Pack together on screen.
Blow (2001)
Amoral, non-judgmental biopic.
May contain spoilers.
Johnny Depp stars as George Jung, the man who brought the majority of cocaine to the USA in the 70's and 80's. After a lousy upbringing which leaves him believing that money is the most important thing (his mother would leave home frequently when there was not enough), he begins his career dealing pot on the beaches of California.
He soon 'graduates' to cocaine supplying on a big scale, and makes a fortune. His daughter, however, soon replaces money as the big thing in his life, although he is forced to let her down on several occasions due to being imprisoned for his crimes.
You end up feeling desperately sorry for a major drug dealer, who ends up imprisoned for 60 years for his crimes at the age of 42.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Un-moving film about a moving story.
After reading the story behind this movie, I was expecting the film to be just as moving, and I think I also expected it to be ultimately uplifting.
However, I found this tale of three little girls forcibly removed from their mothers to be rather long and boring. There were some quite sad moments at the beginning, but I think the film could have been made much more 'heart-rending', and thus more appealing to me personally.
After they escaped from their 'prison-camp', all they did was walk. And walk. And walk. Hmm. Not much of a story there.
Kenneth Brannagh's character came across as rather stupid and misguided rather than the evil, Nazi-like character I was expecting.
I suppose many would say that it was to this film's credit that the story was not overdramatised, and was probably ultimately more realistic. But I would argue that the story was too weak to be made into a decent movie without it.
Joy Ride (2001)
Decent B-movie horror/thriller
College guy buys a car to impress girl. On the way to pick her up, he detours to collect his older brother from jail. En route back to pick up the girl, they have some fun with a trucker on a CB radio. Problem is the trucker doesn't take it as fun.
The film is better than I expected, but not great. Plenty of suspense, and some good 'jumpy bits'. Not much 'horror' as such, but the truckers voice on the CB radio is scary!
Boksuneun naui geot (2002)
Beautifully crafted Asian horror.
Asians excel at horror because, not having to pander to Hollywood's rules, they can take you anywhere at all.
For all this filmed was billed as a gory horror, violence was minimal, and certainly not gratuitous, but ewwwww......it was GOOD when it happened!
The film revolves around the lives of a deaf-mute and his sister who requires a kidney transplant. A kidnap attempt to raise money goes tragically wrong, and much blood-letting ensues.
The ending makes me wince to this day....
I also think that this film delivers an important message. To exact vengeance on someone because you are hurting only makes more people hurt, and it doesn't stop yours.
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
My head aches....
Wow. What can I say? Except that my brain is aching and many different explanations are going around and around in my head. I will definitely need to see this film again to clarify a few points, but at the moment I'm going with the explanation that the first half of the film was dreamed by Diane.
The Firm (1993)
Slick legal thriller.
contains spoilers
Tom Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a hot-shot new lawyer who is seduced into taking a job with a firm of top lawyers who help the mafia to launder money.
'The firm' is quite sinister in that no-one ever leaves alive.
McDeere is not initially aware of the firm's illegal activities, but when he is made aware by the FBI he grudgingly agrees to help to make a case against them.
Monster's Ball (2001)
Gut-wrenching emotional rollercoaster.
Minor spoilers.
Monster's Ball tells the tale of two very fragile and needy people who come together under the saddest of circumstances.
Berry's character Leticia gives Thornton's Hank someone to love and take care of, someone to 'redeem himself' with, and this fulfills her very great need to be loved and taken care of.
The film treats the very powerful subject matters of racism and the death penalty in a mature and 'non-Hollywood' way. I think that if this had been your mainstream Hollywood movie, then the film would have hinged on the moment that Leticia found out that Hank had taken part in her husband's execution. And this film left that moment until right at the end, and then treat it in a very 'grown-up' way.
Thornton's performance as Hank, the prison guard who goes from racist to human being, spurred by his son's suicide, is powerful. But Halle Berry steals the film with her portrayal of Leticia. Her range is tremendous, and the fact that many of the most powerful scenes must have been shot in only one take makes her performance more outstanding.
I must say, though, that I thought one of best-acted scenes was Heath Ledger's scene when all alone in the prison bathroom. His face managed to show all of the pain and emotions running through Sonny's mind in that instant.
Oh, and I thought it a nice touch that the Hank's horrible racist father was to end his days in a nursing home run by black people...
Along Came a Spider (2001)
Thriller with many plot twists.
MAJOR SPOILERS
Film begins with the kidnap from a private school of a congressman's daughter. It's obviously an inside job and criminal psychologist Alex Cross is brought in on the case, reluctantly. I could never figure why him. Many plot twists later it turns out to be the detective asigned as the little girl's body guard who did it. This was fairly predictable although not until late on in the movie.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Surprising. Left me full of emotions and rather lost for words.
CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
Tom Cruise is David Aames, a playboy who has a 'f*** -buddy' played by Cameron Diaz. It is fairly obvious from the start that Julie wants more commitment than David is prepared to give, while he salves his conscience by telling himself that she is just a friend who he has sex with occasionally. At David's birthday party he is mesmerised by the beautiful Sofia (Cruz) and spends a perfect night with her and when they part in the morning both believe it is the beginning of 'true love'.
Everything starts to go badly wrong though, when David is confronted by Julie on leaving Sofia's flat. Having not had sex with Sofia, he lets his d**k rule his head and gets into Julie's car, thinking that they are going to have sex one more time. She however has other plans, and commits suicide by driving over a bridge, leaving David horribly disfigured. All pretty normal stuff so far.
Eventually he builds an idyllic life with Sofia, but starts to have psychotic episodes where Sofia 'turns into' Julie, culminating in David killing Sofia believing she was Julie. He ends up in jail where he is helped by kindly psychologist played by Kurt Russell.
Upshot is that in reality David did not have this life with Sofia, he was dreaming it all. He had really topped himself. But had had his body frozen and was in some kind of permanent dream until his subconscious told him to 'ask' to be unfrozen which is where the film ended.
Phew.
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Johnny Depp looking awful...
Johnny Depp plays a corrupt rare books specialist who is given the task of investigating three books, one of which was supposedly co-written by the devil. Johnny Depp looked awful, and the chain-smoking made me feel sick. Say's alot about this movie that that is my main memory of it. Found it rather boring and slow and I predicted what was coming far in advance of any of the characters.
Magnolia (1999)
Beautifully crafted film that appealed to the voyeur in me.
Magnolia begins with three stories of coincidence, coincidence being one theme of this fantastic film. Tom Cruise is stunning as a self-styled expert at attracting women. In fact all the actors do their jobs perfectly here. Julianne Moore is the woman who develops a conscience as her husband lies dying.
After viewing this movie for the first time I was blown away while watching it, but was left feeling ultimately empty as I thought it left out the answers to many of the questions it raised. But that became one of it's plus points. This film stayed in my mind for days, making me think. All of the characters were desperate for love and I as a watcher became almost desperate to give it to them. Cracking performances by all involved.
Shallow Hal (2001)
Cheesy comedy from the Farrelly brothers.
Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Rosemary, a hugely fat do-gooder. Jack Black is Hal, a 'shallow' character who only dates good-looking women. Until he is hypnotised so that he only sees the good in people. Big fat Rosemary suddenly appears very slim and beautiful in Hal's eyes. And this is the film's one joke. All of his friends still see the real Rosemary and think Hal has gone mad....etc....etc. Hal also visits the burns unit at the hospital where Rosemary does charity work and only sees beautiful children, not scarred and burned children. V cheesy. Watchable though.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Touching.
Possible spoilers.
Russell Crowe stars as John Nash, mathematician and Nobel Prize Winner. We first see Crowe as a rather arrogant, if brilliant student, who descends into the hell that is mental illness. Or rather becomes aware that he suffers from schizophrenia. It is to the film's credit that Nash is not portrayed as a lovable eccentric, but rather more an asocial and at times unlikeable genius. Jennifer Connelly gives a realistic portrayal of his wife, who must assume the role of carer at times. She ably portrays the despair and frustration that goes with this. I did think that the car chase and shoot out was unnecessary, the film didn't need 'spicing up' in this way. And the ending was a touch too 'Hollywood'. But all in all an intelligent and well-thought out film.
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Flawed, required more suspension of disbelief than I was capable of.
For it's era, I thought the original was fab, and eagerly anticipated this remake, thinking that Tim Burton had huge scope for improvement with the technology now available. I was left feeling rather flat. I found Ari's belief that apes and humans could all live together in harmony rather syrupy. A good cast was wasted under undeniably impressive costumes. Although I did think the costumes too 'human'. The much-hyped surprise ending was a huge let-down. I did think it was ending very well, right up until the last couple of minutes and all I can say about that is 'Eh??'(Yes, I 'get' the idea, but cannot figure the time scale).
From Hell (2001)
Moderate 'Jack the Ripper' horror.
Atmospheric Jack the Ripper flick that not only provided plenty of gore, but food for thought too, about the role the Masons and the Royal Family had to play in the Ripper's brutal killings in Victorian London.
Johnny Depp's cockney accent made me wince at times, (it's much improved in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'!). But the sets were realistic enough and I got a 'feel' of how the poorer areas of London might have been in that era. But the characters weren't developed enough for me to empathize with any of them in any capacity. Any film featuring Johnny Depp is always worth a look in my opinion <g> but I wouldn't bother watching it twice.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Couldn't decide whether I liked it or not while viewing, but on reflection loved it!
Good opening, and fab soundtrack from the start. Although I thought the non-chronological ordering was unnecessary to some extent. Good strong theme (revenge). I began to waiver between like/dislike during the animation. To me it smacked of 'ran out of time and money' or 'couldn't be bothered any more' although I'm perfectly sure that this was not the case. I also thought that the fight between The Bride and the Crazy 88 was overlong, verging on becoming boring, and I did begin to wish that someone would just shoot her, and wondered why no-one did? Having said all that, I just loved the gratuitous violence! The limb-chopping and blood spurting were terrific. And the culmination of the fight between The Bride and O-ren was one scene that will stay with me for a very long time. Truly inspired! Before I saw this film, I was concerned about how it would end, (as I like a good ending!),especially as I knew there would be a Vol 2. But it ended very well and stands alone as a good movie, vol 2 or not.
They (2002)
Thought-provoking horror (contains spoilers)
(Contains spoilers) Thought-provoking horror, that in my opinion contains much symbolism (but of course that's only my opinion!). I think that at the beginning when Julia first comes home and listens to her answering machine messages, it is important to remember that one is reminding her to take her medicine. So I believe that she has always been suffering from mental illness. The rest of the film is showing us the world as she sees it, full of monsters etc.
The ending I think is full of symbolism. The fact that she is stuck behind and invisible curtain shows her inability to communicate with, and isolation from the world around her. I think that the doctor noticing the coat-hanger swinging is meant to signify that he has seen the slim chance of communicating with Julia. And after all, they stop looking for her once they've looked in the wardrobe.