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shiva333
Reviews
La belle verte (1996)
Excellent Movie - Much Better than 5 Stars!
Just saw this last night. It is very original, funny and has a great message. It's not the best piece of film-making cinematically speaking that I've ever seen, but well worth seeing and will give you a fresh look at "progress" of western civilization.
I only wish there were more films like this that had a real message to them, unlike the trite "slices of life" that are so common.
Warning that I don't the translation if very good.I don't know French very well but the title itself should be translated "The Beautiful Green" and not "Green Beautiful", plus we saw other translation anomalies. Wish I knew French better!
The Golden Compass (2007)
So-So Fantasy Movie...Wretched Adaptation!
Me and my son hurriedly finished reading The Golden Compass just before the movie came out. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the book and are currently engrossed in the second one. Both of us were equally unimpressed and disappointed in the movie...what were they thinking? The film has virtually none of the depth of story and characters that the film has....the movie strings together all the action sequences of the book (in different order!) and gives the tiniest bit of exposition on the plot in between. The sad part is that all of the best missing bits would have required very little extra effort and no special effects...just fleshing out the characters and stories more would have made it much more satisfying. The movie was roughly 1-3/4 hour and could have easily been 2-1/2 hours or more.
The first 5 or 6 chapters of the book are condensed into the first 15 minutes. And the last chapters are left out entirely!! Yes you heard me...the climactic FINAL scene of the book is completely missing! My advice is that if you have not read the book then you may enjoy the movie..it's beautifully done on the surface...there's some decent acting etc....but if you have read and loved the book you will be very let down at the lack of depth in both story and character development....it's hard to believe Pullman allowed his name to be on the credits of this turkey...
Mirrormask (2005)
Gorgeous and Engaging
I took my 7 year old boy to see this and he loved it. Surprisingly I did too. I have heard complaints about the simplicity of the story, but I disagree. Most of the movie takes place in a wonderfully well crafted dreamscape. The movie segues from scene to scene with a dreamy non-linear approach. You could take a lot of the entire middle section of the film, mix it all up and you'd hardly notice a difference. Beneath the surface though there is quite a bit going on. I left the film feeling like I would need to see it again just to figure it all out. And I probably will! It is unbelievable that this film was made for $4 million dollars. Just goes to show you how bloated the budgets of big budget films are and just how safe they have to play things to make sure they get their earnings back. I hope we see more bod, beautiful and unpredictable films like this in the future.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Great Story...disturbing
Despite the so-so production values this is really an original movie. It's also the only one I know of to successfully incorporate themes from HP Lovecraft. Cthulu and the rest of the Old Ones are involved as is a very Lovecraftian author. Not a perfect movie by any means but definitely thought provoking and worth seeing especially for horror fans. It definitely has its moments and I found it to be disturbing which I guess is a good thing. :-)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Another potentially great movie ruined by Hollywood hack writers.
*minor spoilers*
When will they get it... No amount of CGI effects can create suspence, tension, relief and joy in a movie. Hollywood screenwrites just don't get what they call in theater the "willing suspense of disbelief" which means that an audience is willing to believe the impossible or improbably but *only to a certain point*.
I can believe that they can hack the matrix to get superpowers. I can believe it when I see a cool CGI column of numbers turn into a person. I *can't* believe it when Neo fights a hundred Agent Smiths in an admittedly cool (if overlong) fight and then FLIES AWAY. What the hell was that all about? Throughout the movie he and others do this at any time...but they don't!
I can't believe it when characters stop in the middle of a fight to deliver a snappy one liner. I can't believe that a ragtag group of rebels would stand around in a dark room with cool designer shades on (there were no ray ban stores in sight..no hair stylists or tailor shops either). Or how about *fighting* with dark sunglasses. There were many times when I was quietly laughing or saying 'give me a break' to myself.
Please, *please* movie makers...if you're going to spend a couple hundred million on a screenplay...lose some of the effects and hire a whole team of great screenwriters to write out all of this unbelievable garbage. Some better actors would be good too...although it is probably hard for any actor or actress to be taken seriously with some of those lines...You will still make money if you make it more realistic...more of it probably! More importantly you'll be making good films.
I give this a generous 6 our of 10 stars because I like some of the jumbled philosophy and hey the fight scenes and effects were cool.
Equilibrium (2002)
Good Looking and Well Made if a Little Overwrought
This film is worth seeing although through the whole movie I was thinking that I wish they had spent less money making it so stylized and good looking and spent more writing a better screenplay. Compare this movie to 1984 which is substantially better in my opinion. The realism of the photography in 1984 actually enhances the movie and makes it more emotionally accessible. Like the Matrix, there isn't a single shot in this Equilibrium that isn't heavily stylized and personally I would rather they had made the future look like in 1984....gritty and broken down amd *real*. Few hollywood cliche characters, unreal situations and dramatic pauses in 1984. Still, compared to the average junk pushed by Hollywood, Equilibrium is good and has some interesting ideas. -shiva