Reviews

Love stories are difficult to do well. So is comedy. Kevin Smith does both. Very very well.

Chasing Amy is, in my opinion Kevin Smith's best movie (Clerks 2nd, Dogma 3rd) and I really don't know where to start the praise.

Traditionally, Hollywood romantic comedies are... well, bad. Really lame PG-13 comedy, with some catch phrase repeated ad nauseum, and always some sort of "hilarious" incident involving a baby or a cute dog. And the characters are just as annoying as the lame jokes, so ultimately, you don't really care about whether or not they get together in the end.

Chasing Amy is different. These characters are lifelike.This isn't a romantic comedy for teenage girls. It's a movie for adults. Almost everyone can relate to being a situation where they've loved someone so much, but due to certain circumstances, you just weren't able to have that person. And I guess that's what Amy's all about. Unrequited love. Well, Unrequited love and sexual identity, but that's another topic for another day.

The real genius of this film is that for all it's serious themes, it manages to convey it's message without being at all pretentious. Most independent films have this sort of, arrogant pretentious "I'm so artistic" feel about them.......And I hate that. Smith's success lies in the fact that his movies are meaningful, and they're actually funny as well. And Chasing Amy is no exception.

In short, you'll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining, and realistic love story than Chasing Amy. It's combination of hilarious dialogue, interesting characters, and realistic themes makes it a winner.

When I took a copy of this home from work the other night (it's not out on video and DVD in Australia till like July, video store staff get advance copies) I'm not quite sure what I expected. i'd read good things about the movie, but I still had no idea what to expect.

I'd already seen Being John Malkovich, so it was sort of amusing to see scenes from that. As for adaptation but, I have to say that I did enjoy it, and it's quite possibly one of the most original movies I've ever seen.

Nic Cage has done a great job of portraying Charlie and Donald Kaufman, and while the storyline did get a bit confusing from time to time, it was still pretty enjoyable.

insanely realistic car crashes as well...

7.5/10

I love a good heist flick. When done right, they rock. Gone in 60 Seconds was awesome, The Score was pretty cool, and Ocean's Eleven is no exception.

People might comment on how many of the characters don't distinguish themselves from one and other, but really, this isn't completely true, and with such a great ensemble cast, I think it's possible to look past that minor flaw.

The story's fantastic, it doesn't drag for one single moment during the 112 minute running time, it's got some really great dialogue, it's capped off with a really clever ending...and it wreaks of style and class from beginning to end.

To be honest, I can't find much wrong with this flick at all. It's a great film, that's very easy to watch, and I'd recommend it to pretty much anybody.

8.5/10

Yeah, my plot summary is accurate. As I look at the titles on my DVD shelf, I realise that Memento - nestled comfortably between The Matrix and Ocean's Eleven - is easily the most unique title in my collection, and probably one of the most unique movies ever created.

Christopher Nolan has done a hell of a good job here. This is a movie, that, much like Fight Club, is a movie that you have to watch at least 2 or 3 times before you can fully understand and appreciate it, but even then, this is by no means a bad thing. Memento is a movie that I find myself watching over and over, and it still isn't at all boring.

Putting it simply, without spoiling anything, Memento's a movie that you have to see, and with it's extremely intricate storyline, will probably make a lot more sense the second time round. In fact, possibly the ONLY problem I can find with Memento is that the first time you watch it, it takes a little while for you to work out just what the hell's going on. BUT, aside from that, this is a quality flick from beginning to end, that will have u hanging to know what happens next...or what happened before.

8/10

Let's face it - even if this movie was bad, people would still see it for DeNiro's screen presence. Thankfully, this movie isn't bad. It isn't bad at all. In fact, it's very good, and a fantastic satire on the media world of the new millennium.

In fact, it's that satire that makes 15 Minutes stand out from the crowd. It could have become just another murder-thriller, but instead, director John Herzfeld has put a very nice and very original spin on it. The result is a very entertaining thriller, and a very well crafted satire, not to mention a well crafted film in general.

Let's not forget some of the performances as well. Naturally, DeNiro is outstanding. But Ed Burns also does quite a good job, and Karel Rodan does an absolutely superb job of a villain. By the end of the film chances are that you completely hate his character, Emil Slovak.

So, in summary. A great murder-thriller. A fantastic satire. Admittedly, it's probably not for everybody, but if you love a good thriller, you can't go wrong with 15 Minutes.

8/10

Okay, I'll start off by saying that if u haven't seen this movie yet, do so immediately. Now that that's out of the way, I'll go on to actually review the film.

First off. In case my user-name wasn't a good enough indication, I am a huge fan of this film. It's one of my top 5 movies of all time, and in my opinion, is one of the best movies ive ever seen, obviously.

to be fair, yes, it does have its flaws. Like, I really didn't care for the whole Bruce Willis sub-plot, although it did tie in fairly nicely with Jackson and Travolta's storyline, I just didn't really care for it all that much... and Maria de Medeiros' character REALLY got on my nerves. But, with that said, I can't find any further fault with this film.

As I said, it's one of the best films I've ever seen, and probably ever will see. I can't really simplify it much more.

Basically: It ain't better than Reservoir Dogs, but it's still a damn good film. Go see it ASAP.

9/10

I love this movie. I'm not going to pull any punches here, or waste time with lengthy introductions, i'm just going to skip the formalities and get right to it. Once again, I love this movie. It's by no means high-brow entertainment, but I don't care. It's a cult classic, and being a video store Clerk myself, I can appreciate it even more.

Considering it only cost Kevin Smith 27 grand to make Clerks, he's done a pretty damn good job, and while the View Askew saga remains one of my favourite movie sagas to date, Clerks easily tops them all.

I'm not sure what else I can say here. This is indeed a very quality flick, but I can see why it wouldn't be for everyone. But, speaking from the perspective of a video store clerk who quite often has to deal with douche-bag customers, I can sorta relate to this movie, and that reason, and dozens of others, it remains one of my favourites...It's a shame that the Region 4 DVD is just dodgy, and has literally no extra features (short of scene selection :P)

anyway, if you haven't seen Clerks, and want a good laugh,be sure to get it out next time you're at your local video store.

8.5/10

Uh...I'm not sure where to start, so I guess I'll be brief.

I had pretty high expectations of this movie, but then, I'm sure everybody did. It seems the Wachowskis may have given Reloaded just a little bit too much hype, because, honestly, this movie did not live up to my expectations, or the hype. Now, I'm not going to deny that the movie is worth seeing for the special fx alone. They are spectacular. There's no two ways about it. The car chase is quite possibly the best I've ever seen in a film. The 100 agent smiths fight was also spectacularly done. Let's not forget the rest of the gunfights etc. Bottom line, the special FX rocked the house, but the story left a lot to be desired...But, with any luck, this will be remedied once Revolutions has been released, and the story will make a bit more sense after that.

Also, I'm aware that Reloaded and Revolutions are in fact one movie, but as a movie by itself, Reloaded leaves a lot to be desired. Bring on Revolutions, so this can be fixed.

6/10

-VV_17