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greg-746
Reviews
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
If only Cate Blanchett took gerovital
Beautifully designed and shot. The film's unusual premise invites you to see it so as to understand how it will resolve. Yet the film drags on predictably. It tries to take on art-house lines, so there are none. In this way, it is something of a deluded mainstream project.
The sense of mood that is created as time passes and histories unfold seems muted and unable to give the necessary counterpoint to the dramatic crisis.
Beautiful people and some poignant moments did not make this film compelling. The novelty of aging in reverse wears thin and is simply propped up by clever imagery. The love story is curiously impotent.
It would appear Hollywood has impressed itself again. But they have mistaken craft for art.
Boarding Gate (2007)
A Mess
The story is disjointed and poorly written. We are given threads and a possible hook in act one, only to see it vanish. Had the writer bothered reading his work carefully, it wold have been apparent that Madsden's character's initial problem and meeting with the 'bad' girl suggests that there will be a troubled alliance between them as they try to solve his problem.
The problem goes nowhere. The relationship goes nowhere. And there is no sexual tension in any of the relationships. No-one digs anyone and no-one is appealing. The writing and directing is laughable. You can feel someone struggling with the mess and shifting the story focus about trying to extract some excitement. There is none. The writer/director is simply a beginner whose muddled efforts somehow became a movie. From simple errors such as '...they took polaroids...' - in Japan in 2007 ? to insulting errors such as nudity for eroticism, this movie is an insult. You cannot make them much worse.
And by plastering 'Madsden' on the talent list, the producers thought they'd have some success. He is hardly acting. Asia certainly is... and the result is some heroin-chic panto.
Give it a big miss.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
The puzzle is solved
The confluence of Disney and religion, the film makers thought the New Testament was a join-the-dots puzzle.
Inaccuracy and omission are the best things this film does. It gets worse as we are introduced to a picture book of duo-toned euro-centric cardboard characters. The ancient languages are a cheap device, both pompous and pointless. Yet they are an early clue to the tenor of this piece that,like the horrors of tele-evangelism, sings out here is the truth at last; THIS is what its about, the raw meat slapped out on the chopping board... have no illusion audience, stow your symbols, pack up your poetry, hide your Hebrew and tyre-lever that King James version back into ancient times where it does not belong.
The outcome is known, of course, so in retelling a well known story the problem is why, which begets how. And violence exchanged for passion makes the drama dull. Without compelling character studies and interaction and the mood that might come from an accurate historical exposition, this film is doomed.
This film will be lauded by literal believers and lamented as Hollywood flatulence for everyone else with a working mind.
Mindhunters (2004)
Utter nonsense
This film is poorly made and entirely uninteresting. No character is ever developed beyond a cardboard cutout and so no character is actually interesting. The monotony of a stupidly contrived drama where characters die one by one - in itself such a tired device - makes the very hook as to who in fact is behind the killings non-existent. Who cares ? And doubly so when for even those of us who absented themselves from all science classes throughout their schooling recognise the killing 'traps' as completely implausible and absurd.
The chasms of illogic, which have left discerning audiences weeping with laughter and a right to demand the return of monies paid with interest, receive a hasty and unbelievable explanation from the killer in act 3. One can almost hear the rumblings of the dimwitted story telling minds behind this extravaganza of crappy horror trying to ensure the film at least had some credible base.
The group responsible for this heap of festering excreta surely must have included cynical investors, the creatively challenged and hunters of the mindless.