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Reviews
Loose Change: Second Edition (2005)
Do your homework, Dylan
I can only say that this movie is the result of horrendous research. Even though Dylan, Jason and Korey claim that they have spent 3 years researching 9/11, they still got a lot of facts wrong:
1. AA Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon is a Boing 757 (they got that right) - but it does not have a Pratt&Whitney as claimed in Loose Change - it has a Rolls Royce engine.
2. The voice morphing technology they claim the government uses for faking the phone calls is not ready for LIVE conversations. The technology is only able to morph recorded voices. It's evident that the conversations that the passengers had with their loved ones were live conversations.
3. Most of the calls were carried out on air-phones and not cell phones
4. The movie claims that $167 billion in gold was stolen from the basement beneath WTC 7. This is more than 50% of the gold in the entire world at that point. Do you have any idea of the logistics that would be needed to transport that amount of gold?
5. It claims that Osama Bin Laden is not wearing rings where in fact numerous photos show Bin Laden wearing rings.
And there is probably a lot more. But that's not all - the "documentary" uses every trick in the book called "how to manipulate the viewer":
1. They leave out the thousands of facts that speak against the conspiracy
2. They leave out the many expert reports that support the official 9/11 report
3. They take quotes from witness testimonies out of context
4. They leave out testimonies from thousands of witnesses that don't support the claims made in Loose Change
5. They make a lot of assumptions and conjecture that fit their purpose
6. They never substantiate their claims. They just throw their claims at you as if they were facts.
The worst part of the "documentary" is the "fake phone calls" part. It really, really aggravates me to hear them mocking the victims of 9/11 - and then they have the audacity to dedicate the movie to them afterward. That pisses me off a great deal.
Napola - Elite für den Führer (2004)
No need to exaggerate your message
The main problem with NAPOLA is that it tries to hard to deliver its message: the Nazi regime was bad, the Nazis were evil and history repeating must be prevented at all costs.
But opposed to DER UNTERGANG their message is obscured because they are not portraying the Nazis as people but instead cardboard characters. Gauleiter Stein is hands down the most stereotyped character, I have seen in a Nazi movie. The scene where he sets up a boxing match between Friedrich and Albrecht in his cellar is totally unbelievable.
DER UNTERGANG succeeds in portraying the most evil person in recent history, Hitler, as a human being, which makes him even more chilling.
But in NAPOLA the Nazis are just stereotyped one dimensional persons. They seem to posses only one human characteristic: malice. This makes them easier to disown as "monsters". As a matter of fact most Nazis - even the ones that carried out the most brutal crimes against humanity - were kind family fathers. They seemed to have two personalities: a public and a private one. When you see a human being with human emotions carry out outrageous acts, these acts seem all the more frightening than if you see a monster carrying them out. NAPOLA misses the target because of the inept characterization.
The friendship between Friedrich and Albrecht is also very hard to comprehend since the development of their friendship goes from "total strangers" to "best friends" in a matter of seconds. The writer/director should have paid the development of that friendship more attention since it is a key element in the movie.
The strict father/creative son relationship which leads to the suicide of the son is a total ripoff of DEAD POETS SOCIETY. At least they could have tried to twist the story just a tiny bit to make it somewhat unpredictable.
The movie itself is spectacular when it comes to settings, costumes and cinemagraphy. Beautiful work.
Though I really wanted to like NAPOLA, in the end I walked out of the theater disappointed. Maybe I was expecting too much.
The Island (2005)
No news from Michael Bay
I cannot grasp how anyone can claim that this movie is "Michael Bay's first intelligent movie". There is nothing intelligent in it. The first half hour is promising - but suddenly Michael Bay notices the total absence of explosions. Enter: action, explosions, chases, special effects, fast editing and one-liners. Exit: the script, a believable story and the respect for the viewers intelligence.
This movie is just a horrible waste of money and time. The only thing worth mentioning is the cast. Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansen, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean and Steve Buscemi try their best to make their lines work but they are left clueless by bad directing, bad editing and most of all a horrendous script.
I am puzzled how this script got approved - if there ever was a script? The plot holes in the script are of gigantic proportions and I assume that any intelligent person reading a script with those kind of plot holes would spot them instantly. I mean, you can park a dump truck in most of them. Let's look at a couple.
* The clone project cannot be subject to any kind of government control since it has been possible to break the very basis of the clone law - the clones are not kept in a vegetative state. When you consider the controversy of cloning now and probably also in 2019 I find this very hard to believe.
* It is pure bullshit that organs cannot function when people are kept in a vegetative state. It is possible to keep your body alive and thus all organs functioning for decades even though you're braindead. Remember Terry Schiavo?
* The clone project has been kept a secret even though thousands of real people work there. It is fair to assume that when you have that kind of secret and that kind of people knowing it, that it would leak to the press at one point.
* Why on earth would you build an outside staircase that leads directly to a tile in the floor in the very hallway where you murder the clones? No guards, no obstacles. Why would you build such a thing - unless you want the clones to see that you are actually killing them.
* How could no one in a crowded hallway notice that a tile in the floor was misplaced? For crying out loud - there was a big black hole in a white floor.
* With that kind of money invested in the project, it is quite strange that it is so easy to escape for Lincoln and Jordan. I mean, when you have a 200 billion dollar budget, shouldn't you be able to afford a few guards, maybe even a gate and a fence?
* Why did Lincoln have to throw train axles off of the truck? Michael Bay could have chosen any huge metal objects - but instead he went for the one thing it couldn't be: train axles. Minutes before we just learned that trains in 2019 hover using magnetism. Idiot.
* Why didn't the truck driver notice that he was being shot upon and was losing his entire load of train axles? How is that possible that you don't notice that your truck is going from weighing 50-60 tons to just 10 tons? Impossible.
* How was Lincoln able to both drive a car and a wasp (the airborne motorcycle)? He has no experience whatsoever. Oh, you're saying that those experiences originate from the real Tom Lincoln. Bullshit. How come Lincoln the clone didn't know anything about stopping at red light, sex, kissing, etc. - the sorts of thing you as a person stacks up in the experience department? Actually Michael Bay is saying: "Lincoln Six Echo just got the part of Tom Lincolns experience that I (Bay) thought he should use in the movie".
* The Djimon Hounsou character suddenly becomes a good guy after he had no second thoughts shooting half of L.A. to shreds. Oh yeah, sounds believable.
I really could go on - I still have a dozen plot holes - but I think you get the picture. In short: this movie stinks.
The two stars it gets from me is one for Scarlett Johansen's stunning looks and one for the first half hour before Michael Bay literally blew everything up - including the movie itself.
Der Untergang (2004)
Disturbing piece of cinema
Having watched "Der Untergang" just yesterday, this movie is pretty far from being out of my mind. And I predict that it will stick with me for a few days more, if not weeks. After the end credits the entire theater just sat there, speechless. I was in awe. I had trouble believing what I just saw, has actually happened once. This movie is no crowd-pleaser. It is devastating to watch and the cruelty in this movie is almost unbearable.
When Goebbels' wife killed her 6 children I was crying my eyes out - it was like someone had ripped my heart out and was stomping on it. I wanted to jump up and shout: "STOP, you stupid, stupid, retarded B*TCH!!!!". That scene is the single most heartbreaking scene, I have ever seen. And I have seen my share of scenes aspiring to tears.
But after all, this movie should be seen by everyone. We need to remember that all the good things about life are not given facts. We need to fight for them each day. It starts with ourselves.