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De brief voor de koning (2008)
When terrible is in need of even worse...
After hearing Tonke Dragt's "brief voor de koning" was about to be filmed I really was looking forward to it. "Kruistocht in spuikerbroek" showed a dutch filmmaker can do really well. So when I saw the trailer and read about it, I hasted myself towards the cinema, assuming this would be a great two hours movie.
In the beginning all was fine, nice locations, beautiful costumes, all looked like it could be part of the book. But then, after ten minutes or so, the audio became very irritating with horrible lip syncing. It looked like afterwards in the audio recording studio the director forgot to show the movie and actors had to read their lines straight from paper
at once, without retries or any rehearsal. And why didn't any one bother to think about distance?? On film the actors turn their head, walk away, stand one meter from the camera or ten, but the volume is always the same.
I guess I could get used to this, wasn't it for the horrible stage acting pronunciation. I mean, if an actor is on stage he should speak as clear as possible. But hey, this is cinema, the audio comes from several speakers, speak naturally, do not overdo it! Then there's the acting, how many shots did it take to make this movie, only one? Was half of all shooting days wasted on rehearsals? With every single scene I was under the impression the director shouted "Great, well done! Next one!" You can sometimes even see main characters without lines looking around like "what am I doing here, or hey, what kind of lens is that cameraman using?" And then the locations, though well chosen, did anyone really bother to recheck them before filming?? Why are electricity cables running on walls in a medieval setting? And was it so hard to cover up twenty century electricity boxes?? After this, I think it was twenty minutes into the movie, everything became very annoying. The night shots taken at day time with dark filters, but with the sunny shadows so clearly visible. The rare good acting of even fewer actors became bad, rapped by bad voice recording.
And then, halfway through the movie I became angry, very angry, this was not a movie made to do just to the book or to entertain the audience. It was made so uninspired famous actors had a job and a film crew without any talent could make a full movie.
Was it all bad then? No, the choice of many locations was great, even some actors really tried hard and costume design was great, but what remained was this horrible feeling I completely wasted my time, money and even worse, my good mood. So I left the cinema with an very angry feeling. This movie was an insult, a blasphemy of what good cinema is all about. Besides very few efforts it all looked like the makers wanted to make a very, very quick buck.
But hey, this is my opinion. I still would say, go see for yourself. But please, rent it, or much better, try to lend it from friends or family or any one who was drunk enough to buy this one, because in all honesty, the idea the creators of this flick receive any more money makes me sick: they should be in the TV business, not the film industry.
Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)
Best 1 until now
This episode is the reason for me to watch the dr. Who series again. Really, after the famous (and me being 6 years old) 70's Tom Baker dr. Who , I hardly took interest in watching the series again. Every time I was disappointed. But this episode/season stroke me. It think it was even much better than the 70's best episode. The music is great, the story is wonderful, David Tennant and the other characters make this the best dr Who so far :) So after re-looking all of the 2006 episodes I can only say that to me this series is the most catching series until now. I'm really looking forward 2 what's to come :)
The story lines are so great, the music is beautiful and finally, the characters are chosen perfectly.
BloodRayne (2005)
I don't get this
I hardly write comments, but on this one I just had to. Because I don't get it, the actors are great, the story looks promising, the art department did his best. But all together, somewhere it went completely wrong, but I don't know where ... This could be a great movie, really, everything is there, but someone screwed it up badly, the producer, the director? I don't know, really, this is one of those great movies where someone f***ed it up badly :( After looking it over and over, I still didn't got it. So after taking a look with some friends the only thing we could state is this: All is there to make a classic fantasy, but someone choose otherwise, but none of us could point at it and say, this is it... So hopefully one day someone will make this an cult classic. But to be honest, I really doubt the director will make that one...
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Crap
I enjoyed the books very much, I enjoyed the movies even more, until now that is... What was the director thinking??? This should have been two movies! Now it was like a series of little one lined trailers taken out of the book. Suddenly not only Rupert Grint showed to be a bad actor, even Daniel Radcliffe himself was terrible. Even worse, besides the parts Emma Watson, Jason Isaacs, Michael Gambon and Alan Rickman played, it was like the editors had a great idea: let's remove all the scenes in which the actors perform well and let's show the visitors all the others can't at all.
It was amazing and shocking to see that the best parts were left overs from Alfonso Cuarón's Prisoner of Azkaban: the art and props department had very little to do I think, since they all used Alfonso's input.
But hell, what can one expect from a 63 year old director I guess.
The only reason I didn't walk out of theater was because i was there with all my family of whom at least my mother seemed to enjoy herself with this movie.
I think the 12 year old next girl next to me illustrated this movie best: 30 seconds before something would happen she said to her mother exactly right what was going to take place (like: oh, there's gonna be a shocking moment now) and after the movie she told me she never read the books :( So a big thanks to mr. Mike Newell from turning the magical Harry Potter world into a bad seventies circus act. And if you disagree on this one: take a look on how both schools entered Hogwards, my god,what a terrible circus act that turned out to be :( but hey, take a look at yourself if you are a fan: not many i have met who disagree with me on this one ...
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
wtf
My votes: part 4 a 10, part 5 a 10, part 6 a 9, part 1 a 6, part 2 a 9, part 3 a 1.. George Lucas has completely lost it. Where a new hope, the empire strikes back and return of the Jedi were my all-time favorites, the prequels are completely boring and in my opinion they absolutely do no judge to the Star Wars universe. Never I've been more disappointed in nae movie then in Revenge of the Sith .. badly edited, terrible soundtrack and even the actors look more like Quake IV CGI's than ever before :( Never have I ever been so disappointed in one single movie...
What was Lucas thinking?? About his new coffee machine? His new apple G4?? Really, I think this movie is an insult to any Star Wars loving person.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Great
This is far the best HP so far. This director should make all the sequels yet to come. There are some really beautiful shots. The way Alfonso Cuarón handles the camera is just great! And even those wizards get something believable now, where in the first two movies they all looked like out of place Halloween characters.
And the final battle scene, where Harry is fighting the Dementors, it's really like I visualized during reading the book!
I can only blame them for making it to short :( The almost 2 1/2 hour were by in no time ...
Can only give it a 10 out of 10.
Marc
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Amazing
I could wright 1000 words saying how good it was, that the 3 hours were over within 10 minutes, that the visuals were stunning, the actors performed great, etc ... even then i will miss a lot of it. Watching ROTK was like feeling in general, can i describe it accuratly? No. Just these two words: best ever...
Will it win the important the Oscar's? Not likely, will they give the price 2 best movie to a New Zealand director who shot it all in his native country?? No way ...
Solaris (2002)
Just look
This is far most the best movie this year I've seen(it is in cinema's over here in Amsterdam in 2003), where the original Solaris was totaly boring, this 2002 version kept my full attention from the first minute till the last seconds.
The music, the visuals, the sound-effects, everything is so good. It's not just SF, it's not just drama, it's so much more.
But one advice, if you expect laserswords, pizza-da-Hutt-like creators, don't watch it. Don't expect to see a very happy movie, but one which leaves you with a lot of questions (at least, I had that). If you like intelligent SF, this is sure a masterpiece!
And don't look at it in advance with thoughts about Clooney, Soddenberg, etc, don't expect anything, just look at it ... and perhaps there is a chance you see it like I saw this movie ...