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Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
Storyline decomposed
The gist of the original is gone, hello simplistic hollywood. Quite nice & pastoral and interesting but nowhere near the original, especially the end..
Mandariinid (2013)
Lilked it but why are the subtitles talking about clementines all the time?
I live in New Zealand but assume that it would be the same in other English-speaking countries. The subtitles translated the mandariniid as clementines all the time where you could clearly see these fruit are not clementines more like tangerines and the title has translated like Tangerines. I thought there might be a double meaning in it but does not seem so, just sloppy but it makes it strange as the fruit is so essential. Producer/translator, please change it to tangerines in all the subtitles as that would really improve the overall connection :) Otherwise it is a movie that starts off tense in a quite wild muddy natural outlandish and old-fashioned Russian winter land but in the end draws towards peace thanks to the immeasurable maturity and respect for the old man who really is the hero in his gentle strength. A great Midwinter Christmas movie.
No. 2 (2006)
The Old Crazy bossy Lady makes sense.
A different culture than mine, this was an eye-opener. Tradition counts, feelings do, death is a departing and part and parcel of everything. And so everything turns into a big celebration and tying together feast including pig, trees, foreigners, music and naturally mishaps and power struggles. Features the epic "Bathe In The River", a very moving song by amazing New Zealand musician Hollie Smith and the Mt Raskill local people choir. This film forms an important link in New Zealand film lineage as it is one that portrays a very important happening in an 'island' family living in Auckland's 'wild' west suburbs. We get to experience a largely different and unknown culture right in the middle of a 'normal' suburb. This is Auckland, the city with the world's largest Polynesian population.
Tara Road (2005)
Made for a good night in with my guy!
Liked the movie after some initial troubles, as it has lost SO much of the subtlety & history in the book & it puts a magnifying glass on only the last third of the book from when the 2 women connect. But it turned out to be very good in it's own right, concentrating on the crossroads and working through grief. The music also gives a powerful cachet. The Irish male Blarney charmers are snake bastards, well portrayed and seem to come off lightly. The loss of the dream related to them is a familiar theme for Maeve Binchy by now, it also figures in her book Firefly summer. You might enjoy it. Give it a try. It is good stuff for a nice crazy evening with Irish slants & Ruby Wax!
Up in the Air (2009)
It was lame
I went to this movie because it was recommended in the reviews as a 5 out of 5 but I was sorely disappointed. This movie has turned me off George Clooney, perhaps that is a bonus as it might be more realistic. I used to think that he was sexy but I spent most of this movie huddled in a corner because it made me feel so bad and disconnected. The best moment was when the younger woman finally dares to criticize his life as they are taking a picture of his sister against a background of water and he ends up in the water. And when he finally as a classic romantic story part runs to get the woman he realises he loves and it turns out she has been playing but also has a REAL LIFE. The woman up to then seemed the ideal male fantasy but this is the 2000s and it is now an end to the impossible male fantasies a la James Bond as they are SO last millennium. Those 2 moments caused me to give the movie more than a 1 for score as I was actually laughing or found it a great point in the story. But the rest : LAME An endless boring sequence of more people to fire, and at the end he is still flying round up in the air. SAD. I needed some Santa movies to recover from this one.
Robin Hood (2006)
It was great but the end was lame
Did anybody else find the end lame? Everything was amazingly good and thrilling and psychologically very strong. But I was so disappointed by the fizzle at the end... The whole story was taken out of the geographical setting. Then it just went exotic and weird as it seemed to take on a link to Jesus and Mary. For me there was no use for this... and it spoiled the end of the series. I like the original story and it is firmly set in Middle England as far as I am concerned. Why was there no happy ending for Marianne? I was sad as it was an old-fashioned bad ending for the girl. I kept hoping but to no avail. I would like to know how other people feel about this. Compare the Seeker, a recent New Zealand series. That one had a weird plot in that it revealed a rule that male confessor babies had to be killed as they would become too power-hungry. I repulsed at that plot and found that very questionable (even if perhaps intriguing and there being some truth in it). The end of The Seeker was more level however.