British secret agents are commanded to recover a cache of stolen explosives and kill the terrorists using them in London. Young men are told to become terrorists by a muslim cleric whose arguments against the British establishment are convincing. This film is dangerous because these arguments are never refuted and the Secret Service is seen as both amateurish (Ewan) and encouraging terrorism (Charlotte). It conceivably might be used as a training device to turn Muslim men into terrorists.
Reviews
14 Reviews
The Fall
(I) (2013–2016)
A good cast; great acting by the principles.
22 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The Fall is one of the best series I've seen. The acting and directing is exceptional and is more noticeable due to the lack of shootouts and car chases found in most U.S. crime shows. You can actually tell the emotions of a character from his/her visage (all too rare in dramas of today. This is especially true of the villain, Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan. Unable to remember the last six years of his life due to trauma caused by a bullet wound, Spector has the appearance of an innocent victim until he remembers his first murder. It can then be seen in his face that he is reverting back to the antisocial personality disorder that led to his murders.
Jason Bourne
(I) (2016)
A disappointment
7 August 2016
My wife and I enjoyed the first three Bourne movies and were looking forward to more of the same with "Jason Bourne." We were sorely disappointed. Instead of action being strategically placed with dialog and scenery, it was thrown at us most all the time. However, on the side of caution, the makers of this film did not include aliens, vampires, werewolves, zombies, or giant albino monks!
The plot revolves around the clichéd controversy of security versus privacy but it is full of holes and improbabilities -- in one sequence a SWAT team truck is driven through heavy traffic like a knife through warm butter.
Save your money for this one and watch the old Bourne films on re-run.
The plot revolves around the clichéd controversy of security versus privacy but it is full of holes and improbabilities -- in one sequence a SWAT team truck is driven through heavy traffic like a knife through warm butter.
Save your money for this one and watch the old Bourne films on re-run.
Inglourious Basterds
(2009)
I can't recommend it.
4 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Yet another fantasy WW II film in which Hitler and the high command of the German military are killed by a small group of American troops. Yet it's not really a feel-good movie like "The Dirty Dozen" because the smarmy, sadistic SS Colonel Hans Landa never receives his due.
Tarantino seldom feels the need to exercise restraint but here, at least, the killing scenes are relatively few. He has also refrained from including vampires, werewolves, and zombies.
I can't fault the acting (although Pitt appeared uncomfortable with his southern accent), the music, the costumes, or the cinematography, but there is nothing here to set it above other films.
Tarantino seldom feels the need to exercise restraint but here, at least, the killing scenes are relatively few. He has also refrained from including vampires, werewolves, and zombies.
I can't fault the acting (although Pitt appeared uncomfortable with his southern accent), the music, the costumes, or the cinematography, but there is nothing here to set it above other films.
Skyfall
(2012)
A Disappointment
15 January 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Those expecting the James Bond they have enjoyed in the past may be disappointed. Bond, played by Daniel Craig in his third time in the role, lacks the confidence, the swagger, skills, and tactics of the character's previous incarnations.
After an ineffectual struggle with Patrice, a hit-man, Patrice, Bond is mistakenly shot by Even, another MI6 operative. Rather than undergo a thorough government sponsored therapy, he just drops out of sight. Once he returns to MI6, he must undergo tests to determine his fitness. He flunks the physical, but is reinstated to duty by M (Judi Dench).
Bond's original mission was to retrieve a hard drive containing the names of every NATO agent currently operating undercover. Though this Bond is a protagonist, rather than a hero, the story has a real villain, Silva (Javier Bardem), who has the stolen hard drive. Silva appears to have almost unlimited resources and skills; his planning is so precise as to bring a subway car crashing into a tunnel where he is pursued by Bond.
Silva is eventually killed by Bond and the hard drive recovered. But Bond's secondary mission -- to protect M while using her as bait to lure Silva out of hiding -- is a dismal failure. Bond takes her to his family home (Skyfall) only to see M killed and his home demolished because he greatly underestimated Silva.
More human? Perhaps, but not the man I came to admire.
After an ineffectual struggle with Patrice, a hit-man, Patrice, Bond is mistakenly shot by Even, another MI6 operative. Rather than undergo a thorough government sponsored therapy, he just drops out of sight. Once he returns to MI6, he must undergo tests to determine his fitness. He flunks the physical, but is reinstated to duty by M (Judi Dench).
Bond's original mission was to retrieve a hard drive containing the names of every NATO agent currently operating undercover. Though this Bond is a protagonist, rather than a hero, the story has a real villain, Silva (Javier Bardem), who has the stolen hard drive. Silva appears to have almost unlimited resources and skills; his planning is so precise as to bring a subway car crashing into a tunnel where he is pursued by Bond.
Silva is eventually killed by Bond and the hard drive recovered. But Bond's secondary mission -- to protect M while using her as bait to lure Silva out of hiding -- is a dismal failure. Bond takes her to his family home (Skyfall) only to see M killed and his home demolished because he greatly underestimated Silva.
More human? Perhaps, but not the man I came to admire.
Hidalgo
(2004)
Are you a fan of melodrama?
23 May 2011
Do you like horses? Do you like cowboys? Are you a fan of melodrama? If so, you'll love Hidalgo. Its importance as a film is chiefly in giving Viggo Mortensen the experience of playing a cowboy -- experience that he would later put to good use in Appaloosa.
Mortensen plays Frank Hopkins, a former Pony Express courier, turned Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show actor, turned long distance horse racer in the Ocean of Fire--a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian desert. Hopkins and his mustang horse, Hidalgo, are racing against Arabian thoroughbreds, but might as well have been competing with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse since the plot throws up all manner of unlikely obstacles and dastardly villains for them to overcome.
Mortensen plays Frank Hopkins, a former Pony Express courier, turned Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show actor, turned long distance horse racer in the Ocean of Fire--a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian desert. Hopkins and his mustang horse, Hidalgo, are racing against Arabian thoroughbreds, but might as well have been competing with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse since the plot throws up all manner of unlikely obstacles and dastardly villains for them to overcome.
Night Falls on Manhattan
(1996)
Andy Garcia miscast
30 November 2010
Andy Garcia is a great actor, but casting a Cuban American as an Irish American (Sean Casey), is too much of a stretch. Ian Holm, a Brit, plays his father (Liam Casey), and no one would visualize the two as father and son. It is no coincidence that he was cast previously as a person of Mediterranean or Latin American heritage. Otherwise a fine film about New York police, divided loyalties, the illegal drug business, the corruption drug money makes possible, and the ethical consequences that involve everyone knowing of the crimes committed. "Night Falls on Manhattan" contains a good plot from the novel by Robert Daley and has a strong supporting cast with James Gandolfini, Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin, Dominic Chianese, Shiek Mahmud-Bey, and Paul Guilfoyle.
Australia
(2008)
With a bit more effort (or a bit less) Luhmann could have been responsible for a new film genre -- epic camp.
9 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Music from The Wizard of Oz is played and/or sung throughout the film and its characters are compared (unsatisfactorily in my opinion) with those of Australia. It's an in-group reference, since "Oz" is a common nickname for Australia.
Is Baz Luhmann paying homage to Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablance, Out of Africa, and every western and oppressed minority film ever made and creating a true epic, or is he patching stock clichés, plots and characters together to make a long film far inferior to any he references?
Brandon Walters, as the half-caste Aboriginal, Nullah, and the film's narrator is one of the few leads in this WWII era story that seems at ease with his character except when he is in his "doing magic" pose. His mother follows her son into a water tank for no reason and drowns. in an earlier scene, that tank was full of holes.
The other characters are mostly one dimensional. Hugh Jackman plays a character so flat he is coincidently only called by his occupation, "Drover." Being the stereotypical cowboy, he has no social skills. He drives cows, except when he is inexplicably driving horses through the cattle ranch owned by Lady Sarah Ashley.
Nicole Kidman plays the lady to Jackman's tramp. Naturally these opposites must attract and the lady thaws almost to the point of looking as if she's truly in love.
David Gulpilil plays King George, Nullah's grandfather and protector. Having played aboriginal characters for over 35 years, he knows the drill. His character behaves logically through most of the film but, near the end, still has a spear which his captors in Darwin evidently neglected to confiscate. Then he finds it necessary to reveal to Neal Fletcher that he is Nullah's father as if the man could not otherwise have known.
Fletcher, played by David Wenham, is the chief villain in this melodrama. He is the architect behind everyone else's misfortunes excepting the Japanese bombing of Darwin and Mission Island.
Mission Island is the fictitious location where Aboriginal children (the Lost Generation) removed from their parents were interred. We are asked to believe that the Japanese would send soldiers to this island so that Drover could rescue Nullah.
The real star of Australia is the land itself. The vast expanses of northern Australia are well photographed and put the special effects and animation to shame. The Darwin harbor scenes and the kangaroo sequence would be at home in a B movie.
With a bit more effort (or a bit less) Luhmann could have been responsible for a new film genre -- epic camp.
Is Baz Luhmann paying homage to Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablance, Out of Africa, and every western and oppressed minority film ever made and creating a true epic, or is he patching stock clichés, plots and characters together to make a long film far inferior to any he references?
Brandon Walters, as the half-caste Aboriginal, Nullah, and the film's narrator is one of the few leads in this WWII era story that seems at ease with his character except when he is in his "doing magic" pose. His mother follows her son into a water tank for no reason and drowns. in an earlier scene, that tank was full of holes.
The other characters are mostly one dimensional. Hugh Jackman plays a character so flat he is coincidently only called by his occupation, "Drover." Being the stereotypical cowboy, he has no social skills. He drives cows, except when he is inexplicably driving horses through the cattle ranch owned by Lady Sarah Ashley.
Nicole Kidman plays the lady to Jackman's tramp. Naturally these opposites must attract and the lady thaws almost to the point of looking as if she's truly in love.
David Gulpilil plays King George, Nullah's grandfather and protector. Having played aboriginal characters for over 35 years, he knows the drill. His character behaves logically through most of the film but, near the end, still has a spear which his captors in Darwin evidently neglected to confiscate. Then he finds it necessary to reveal to Neal Fletcher that he is Nullah's father as if the man could not otherwise have known.
Fletcher, played by David Wenham, is the chief villain in this melodrama. He is the architect behind everyone else's misfortunes excepting the Japanese bombing of Darwin and Mission Island.
Mission Island is the fictitious location where Aboriginal children (the Lost Generation) removed from their parents were interred. We are asked to believe that the Japanese would send soldiers to this island so that Drover could rescue Nullah.
The real star of Australia is the land itself. The vast expanses of northern Australia are well photographed and put the special effects and animation to shame. The Darwin harbor scenes and the kangaroo sequence would be at home in a B movie.
With a bit more effort (or a bit less) Luhmann could have been responsible for a new film genre -- epic camp.
Dogville
(2003)
This is a cautionary tale about human nature -- how a few "good people" turn from being a woman's protector into her tormentor.
1 January 2008
Set in a small village in the Rockies in the 1920s or 30s this is not a typical western with spectacular scenery and exciting action. The silver mine at the edge of town is abandoned and all that is left are fifteen adults and a few children. Dogville is about them and Grace, the young woman who comes to their town seeking refuge from gangsters in a nearby town. It is a cautionary tale about human nature -- how these "good people" turn from being Grace's protector into her tormentor.
Dogville opens with a high overhead shot. At first it seems you are looking at a board game then, as the camera zooms in, it becomes apparent that you are looking at a stage setting -- a minimalist set where the audience is forced to focus on the actors. Rather than acts, the work is divided into chapters like a novel; just short of three hours, it is a long novel. If one is able to enjoy this film, one must wait for human nature to change at its own slow pace.
The stellar cast includes Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Blair Brown, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Phillip Baker Hall, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloë Sevigny, and is narrated by John Hurt. All perform well. Young Miles Purinton also does an excellent job as a perverse preteen. Bettany plays Tom Edison in the pivotal role as town philosopher. It is Tom who discovers Grace and persuades the residents of Dogville to allow her to live amongst them to prove that they are able to accept her as a gift despite any obstacles that occur from themselves or outsiders.
In the end fear prevents the people of Dogville from accepting the gift of Grace's love, good cheer, good sense, and willingness to perform hard labor to assist them -- fear of acceptance, commitment, and the fear of unknown consequences for aiding a woman wanted wrongly by the law. The film may be seen as an allegory for any type of discrimination and its consequences.
Dogville opens with a high overhead shot. At first it seems you are looking at a board game then, as the camera zooms in, it becomes apparent that you are looking at a stage setting -- a minimalist set where the audience is forced to focus on the actors. Rather than acts, the work is divided into chapters like a novel; just short of three hours, it is a long novel. If one is able to enjoy this film, one must wait for human nature to change at its own slow pace.
The stellar cast includes Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Blair Brown, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Phillip Baker Hall, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloë Sevigny, and is narrated by John Hurt. All perform well. Young Miles Purinton also does an excellent job as a perverse preteen. Bettany plays Tom Edison in the pivotal role as town philosopher. It is Tom who discovers Grace and persuades the residents of Dogville to allow her to live amongst them to prove that they are able to accept her as a gift despite any obstacles that occur from themselves or outsiders.
In the end fear prevents the people of Dogville from accepting the gift of Grace's love, good cheer, good sense, and willingness to perform hard labor to assist them -- fear of acceptance, commitment, and the fear of unknown consequences for aiding a woman wanted wrongly by the law. The film may be seen as an allegory for any type of discrimination and its consequences.
Borat
(2006)
Love it? Not me!
26 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I suspect this a movie you either love or hate and I'm firmly in the latter category. I love a good comedy and I'm no prude, but I can't enjoy someone making a complete ass of themselves.
As Borat Sagdiyev, Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to be a native of Kazakhstan visiting the United States to marry Pamela Anderson and bring back to his people his new found knowledge of American culture. The fool as a comic device has a long tradition in theater allowwing the audience to laugh at an inferior's mistakes. It is also humorous when a clever satarist makes those he encounters who see him as ignorant are revealed as foolish themselves. The movie fails when Baron Cohen plays both the fool and the satirist acting as a fool.
The journey across country in an ice cream truck is one of the few elements of wit without being offensive. Of course these days offensive sells.
As Borat Sagdiyev, Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to be a native of Kazakhstan visiting the United States to marry Pamela Anderson and bring back to his people his new found knowledge of American culture. The fool as a comic device has a long tradition in theater allowwing the audience to laugh at an inferior's mistakes. It is also humorous when a clever satarist makes those he encounters who see him as ignorant are revealed as foolish themselves. The movie fails when Baron Cohen plays both the fool and the satirist acting as a fool.
The journey across country in an ice cream truck is one of the few elements of wit without being offensive. Of course these days offensive sells.
Tattle Tale
(1992 TV Movie)
A farce with no subtlety
30 November 2006
I watched half of Tattle Tale before giving up on it. It tries to be funny in a sophomoric manner, but falls flat. Perhaps the producers should have included a laugh track, for this show resembles an old TV sitcom. C. Thomas Howell plays an Bernard Sprat, an actor falsely maligned by his ex-wife played by Ally Sheedy. The plot revolves around Spratt's attempt to get revenge and restore his reputation (such as it is). Howell's character is such a bumbling idiot, however, that it is difficult for a sophisticated audience to sympathize with his troubles. This movie is suitable for children of middle school age and adults with similar interests.
Lulu on the Bridge
(1998)
It is only at the film's end that the discerning viewer understands what has really transpired.
9 November 2005
Like many of New York City waitresses, Celia Burns is an aspiring actress. Izzy Maurer, a jazz saxophonist recovering from a gunshot wound, contacts her after finding her name along with a stone having magical properties, one of which propels them into a love affair. Through her talent, and friends of Izzy's ex-wife, Celia is able to land the part of Lulu, one which most actresses could only dream of. Izzy is held captive and Celia chased by a mysterious man claiming to have a doctorate in anthropology who wants the magical stone. It is only at the film's end that the discerning viewer understands what has really transpired. The all star cast does not disappoint.
Greatly superior to the more recent fictionalized film.
2 August 2003
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