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shagya49
Reviews
Total Recall (1990)
Recall has no Plot
The part I don't understand is if there was a "reactor" or whatever at the centre of the planet why hasn't it been working all this time? Who would turn the thing off in the first place? The original Martians were both advanced and probably peaceful otherwise they would not have been able to build such a machine in the first place. The idea that the "planet would go into meltdown" as Cohaagen seems to believe is wrong so why was the thing turned off? Also when the reactor starts and replenishes the entire planet's atmosphere in less time than it takes for two people to die from decompression wouldn't this result in an explosion that would have killed everyone in the immediate vicinity? The idea of a colonial revolt is good but there was too little depth and development. This "deus ex machina" is too much of a shortcut.
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Escape from L.A . rehashes original plot
I disagree with people who think this is a better film than Escape from New York. Plots rarely improve with recycling. The opening scenes are like a comedy club imitation of the original. But one thing is still all right. The dictator on the "inside" is as rotten as the outside. But is this really new? I liked the character of Snake ... well up to a point. Making fun of religious nuts is okay but Russell needs some new material here. I'd like to point out one thing just at the end of the film. Actually the neutron bomb doesn't work this way. By changing the casing of a fission device more neutrons could be released in the explosion. Originally thought as an anti-tank weapon the NB would not, beyond a short range, be much different to a "conventional" nuke. The idea, if you can call it that, was to produce a weapon which would tend to spare more solid objects while killing as many people as possible. The neutron bomb was also called an 'enhanced radiation device'. The weapons displayed in the film (I appreciate this is science fiction so the rules tend to get bent a little) appeared to be some kind of X-ray laser similar to the Strategic Defense Initiative "Star Wars" thing dropped in the 1980s. It's true that real EMT would screw up modern electronics over a fairly short range but most of this stuff could be rebuilt. The "end of electricity" idea is ridiculous.
Escape from New York (1981)
Just Call me Plissken
I've watched this flick a few times. It appeals in a vague way to the feeling that many people, particularly in North America, have about politicians. The American president is portrayed as a sniveling little twerp and Plisskin is every teenagers' dream of a "tough but true" anti-hero. The head crook in the Manhattan prison island strikes me as not a great deal different from the thugs on the outside and perhaps that is the point. Some of the characters like Cabby are sympathetic although I wonder what he must have done to be condemned to this place. Borgnine played a similar role as the simpleton in the original "Flight of the Phoenix". Others in the cast are of no great consequence unless you're "into" the kind of "realism" ie. juvenile bloodletting, that fueled most "B" pictures since the mid seventies. Russell shows a little bit of development in the last scene when he rejects the moniker of "Snake". And I really liked the tape swapping part at the end. I give this a fair-to-middling 6 out of 10.
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Valley is product of the times
The style is a bit hard to take at times as with most John Ford films. But at least it talks about things that matter, or least once did ... not a brilliant film but with some good points. Perhaps in comparison to what is being made today it's understandable that people would see many old films as being better. It's annoying that the boy Huw goes down into the pits when he has the ability to,at least, get away from this place. As an educated man he would have been in a better position to "strike a blow" against misery then by "romantically" suffering. This is a morality play {or a lesson in "divinity" as such things used to be called}. He commits a sin of omission and nothing comes of it. I was in Wales in 1967 and saw the slag heaps which, two years before, had rolled down over a primary school and killed everyone inside. Most of the mines in England and Wales are now gone. I don't think they will be missed ...
Seabiscuit (2003)
Hollywood ... on the wrong lead as usual
I saw this film recently on a American channel that, like so many, has more commercials then program. Usually that bothers me but in this case the ads were more of a relief than anything else. "Seabiscuit" isn't as openly reactionary as "Hidalgo" but is just about as bad in most other respects. Some commentators seemed to believe,yes, this a really bad movie that's nonetheless "okay" for people who happen to like horses. I don't understand why this should follow. I think of myself as one of the latter and it is for this reason I find this thing particularly annoying. Horse racing is not an especially noble enterprise although the facts aren't quite as bad as in decades past. Here some improvements are spin offs from the positive actions of individual owners and the general public (California's proposition 6 in 1998) not due to any help from Hollywood. The film industry seems to be on a crusade to inflict the "Disney" disease on almost every public issue or personal interest (or so it seems at times) and the rest of us have to work hard to undo the damage so caused. Anyway,as others have noted,"Seabiscuit" is the product of the counterfeit post 9-11 " Who Are We" outlook coming more from the tortured minds of the chattering classes then out of any real need for "interior" revaluation on the part of joe public.
Hidalgo (2004)
This movie is so bad that it's ..... worse...
I am watching the film as I write this review. This thing is really bad. The propaganda against arabians ( the people not the horses ) is so childish I find it almost unbelievable. 19th century literature extolling the British empire was intelligent compared to this trash. I understand Disney was behind this according to one commentator. That figures. I guess brainless and cute has moved on to merely brainless. So what else? Of course, there is no "ocean of fire" race but that is the least of sins. And all the huffing and puffing about "infidel" this and "infidel" that... give me a break with that stuff. For a moment I thought that the introductory scene with the "battle" at Wounded Knee might be a harbinger of better things but not a chance. I'm surprised that George Bush 2 didn't put in a cameo appearance! Of course most Hollywood movies involving animals as a protagonist, or companion of same, are pathetic. I noticed that a number of knowledgeable people have made some fairly straight forward technical criticisms, the most obvious being that "Hidalgo" is not a mustang but an American paint horse ( which is simply a Quarter horse with white on the coat, something not permissible in the QH registry ). For long distance rides it is well known that Arabian horses, in particular egyptians, beat all comers. They are not the fastest over shorter distances but their staying power is respected, as are the people and areas of the world which share their name.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Not that good ... unfortunately
I was hopeful that the first ST movie would be a little more original than this. I liked the original television series, but this movie, even for something twenty five years old, was a disappointment. The Wrath of Khan was a slight improvement but that's not really saying much. Personally I'm getting sick of psychopathic aliens. Is the universe really a cesspool of mass murderers or is this just a cheap way for some Hollywood goof to bring in a crowd? If this "demon cloud" had achieved such an astronomical fund of knowledge why did it not also achieve moral consciousness? ... on it's own? Or at least appreciate the real difference between itself and other forms of life? Couldn't VGER figure out that it's "core", a 20th century satellite, was a very crude device that wasn't worth much effort and certainly didn't justify laying waste to significant chunks of real estate? Anyway, the science of Star Trek was basically nonexistent but at the least the original from the sixties had a little bit of character and humour ... sometimes. This didn't really carry over to the first film. Too bad.
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
fair to middling ... except for the "changling".
A film like this has probably been seen by many people so a plot summary would be pointless. I admit I've never read the Fitzgerald short story. Therefore I'll accept the point made by others who see a lose of substance here. Very few films do justice to their literary sources. Oddly enough, when I saw "Paris" for the first time I believed, for a while, a plot twist involving the child "Vicy" was in the works. Something along the line of developing tuberculosis or polio ( near the end the girl falls down while dancing in front the father ). Even the way she is made up suggested emaciation or sickness ... or a developing sociopathy ( if we are to believe her terrible acting was not simply the result of poor production values ). Otherwise the plot line is ... well ... passable by the standard of older films and quite good in comparison to today's junk ... which is not saying much. I give it a seven with some reservations.
Star Wars (1977)
what a load
I know everyone has seen this thing by now so it's not like I'm saying anything really new. Star Wars is one of the worst movies I had seen up until the time it came out. (I was there the first time ... definitely not impressed.) The special effects were poor even for the nineteen seventies.I mean the small models used for the fighter planes (spaceships?) are obvious. The hulls look as if they were made out of brick not metal. Of course there are no explosions in outer space but why let basic facts interfere with a (bad) story. . And what is an aristocracy doing in a society advanced enough for space travel? That arrogant princess should have been the first one to be zapped.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Day after tomorrow ... a real turkey
This is without a doubt one of the the worst movies I have ever seen. Judging from other review sites such an opinion seems to be widespread .... which is refreshing since popularity usually equals mediocrity, at least in this century. The partial basis for this garbage ( not to mention a really bad, "bad weather" book by UFOlogist Art Bell and one of his buddies ) is some "flash frozen" mammoth discovered in Siberia and now resident at the Smithsonian. Well kiddies the internal organs of that unfortunate animal showed evidence of the normal damage associated with mortality, ie. it's guts were rotten. Other scientific faux pas included a violation of the Ideal Gas law ... again no instant frozen mammoths, helicopters, flags or people are possible. Of course bad science does not always mean completely bad acting ( even the Klingons have their good moments ) but D.A.T. comes up cold and empty on this score. The acting reminds me of Canadian soap opera from the 1960s AND THAT STORY!! ... billions of people die while this Paterfamilia walks from Pennsylvania to New York in a couple of days without the slightest idea what he is going to do when he gets there??? Superstorm equals Superturkey.
Pleasantville (1998)
Pleasantville
The only thing I didn't like about this film is the idea that the nineteen fifties were some period of eternal virginity. Having lived through that decade I can tell you that one singular and notable difference had to do with privacy not abstinence. People simply didn't talk about personal " stuff " on daytime talk shows. Brutality existed just as it does now but in some ways was less democratic and less "psychologized". The issue of colour returning to the characters centres about their discovery of emotion not (just) sexual mechanics. David realizes that the retro world which he enters as an escape from his pathetic family is just not that wonderful. They have problems just as we do and the solutions are the same: honesty, fairmindedness, intellectual curiosity and most importantly showing courage in the face of evil. I give Pleasantville a seven.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
missing parts from T.P. and A.
Everybody seems to have had their say on this film. I agree that it is not bad (7 out of 10 maybe ) but not great. "Uncle Buck" had more depth, after a fashion ... The language is censored in several scenes especially on the so-called "family channel". It's pretty obvious. I do get tired of the "f" word appearing every five minutes along with the usual store of blood and guts in other modern films yet I don't think it's possible to criticize Candy's efforts too much on this score. He's supposed to be an illiterate boob. But one with redeeming virtues. Serial killers and such don't qualify here. Anyway one thing I don't understand is in the DVD, which I bought, the scene on the plane where they talk about airline food is missing. I wonder why ... the DVD is made by Paramount as far as I know.
Scrooge (1951)
A Christmas Carol ,1951
The only real criticism I see is an attempt to colourize the film somewhere back in the eighties ... really awful and quite pointless. This version of Dicken's classic was made in 1951 and the monochrome adds intensity to the harsh atmosphere of early nineteenth century London. In comparison the interpretation made in 1984 with George C. Scott as the principal character came across as Disneyified mush. Sim's Scrooge is the product of the immediate post WW2 period where social democratic ideas were strongly felt particularly in England. This is reflected in the strange combination of sincerity and sentiment which is seen in many other films of that period. Might also explain the liberties that were taken with the original story and some of the mistakes ( like Scrooge's younger sister which couldn't be if the mother died in childbirth ).
In some ways "Scrooge" is the soft "family" version of Bogarts "Rick" in Casablanca. Personal strength in the service of that which is good. In a postmodernist age this concept must be as foreign as the horse-drawn cabs in Soho.