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Reviews
Mirror Mirror (2012)
Not exactly a dud but...
I really wanted to like this movie but it wouldn't let me.
Julia gives great off-hand evil and Arnie Hammer is as handsome and princely as one could wish. The costumes are clever and outrageous and some of the conceits, like the magic mirror are ingenious but there's too much time spent subverting the Disney version and winking at the audience— cute Dwarf names etc. If they'd gone back to the Grimm original and built the story anew, they might have come up with something surprising and fresh. I love fantasy and had high hopes for this movie but with the number of big budget fantasy films tanking these days—"John Carter" anyone? (which I thought was great) I fear the fantasy film will soon be dead in the water. If "Snow White and the Huntsman" bombs, we can say goodbye to this genre. If only Julia and her stupendously absurd dresses were in another, better movie, one that had gone through several more re-writes and directed by someone with a strong narrative sense, then we might have had something. As for the Bollywood number, make it relevant or don't do it.
In the words of John Lennon: "Snow What and the Seven Dwarts". Now, that would have been a good movie which "Mirror Mirror" ain't, alas.
Eyewitness (1981)
Sometimes it's a mistake to visit the past.
I remember this movie as being really great back in 1981. Weaver and Hurt were new and sexy and I guess the thriller part was thrilling... or something. Now, the two leads just seem oddly matched and the thrills aren't there.
The plot makes little sense. There are some inexplicable coincidences an irrelevant car/motorcycle chase and James Woods is ludicrously hammy.
Now I'm afraid to visit other Peter Yates films of yore. If Breaking Away and Bullit turned out to be as confused and lumpen as this movie is, I'll be disappointed. I've seen The Dresser recently and it's still very good.
Mansfield Park (2007)
Jane Austen's spinning in her grave
I recently read the book (a bit of a slog but brilliant) and was interested to see a screen adaptation, wondering how on earth they could breath life into Fanny Price who seems to be more of an ideal that a real person. I haven't yet seen Patricia Rozema's version but this one is such a travesty that I watched the whole thing in fascination and horror; much like not being able to look away from a traffic accident. This one's sort of like Moll Flanders' adventures in Jane Austenland. Jane is now such big bu$ine$$ that they simply take one of her plots, add some good actors, a stately manor or two, some hifalutin sounding dialogue, heaving bosoms and stir. The acting's quite good including the girl playing Fanny who's so disastrously miscast and costumed (and what's with her hair?) that it renders the whole thing ridiculous. This cynical mess has as much to do with Jane Austen's intentions as a ham sandwich. James Retsin's great, as always.