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seamus.dunphy
Reviews
Signs (2002)
Waste of time
Very dissapointing film;
- Acting very weak - Unbelievable plot lines - Central theme (Belief in God) impossible to reconcile with story
On the plus side; there are a few 'jump in your seat' moments.
Avoid at all costs.
How Harry Became a Tree (2001)
How Symbolism Becomes Boring after a while....
This is a weak movie; I believe the director's intention was to make people laugh but, in this reviewer's case, he failed miserably. OK, I giggled once or twice but in between that it was a complete bore, uninteresting characters, stupid plot line, moronic and unintelligible symbolism.
Colm Meaney did a good job as an actor 'though.
I Am Sam (2001)
Are you ready to be heartbroken?
An unbelievably touching and emotional film. It portrays and touches the human condition in ways that I have rarely seen in other films.
Nice to see Dianne Wiest lending her skills to the movie, Sean Penn is excellent, Michelle Pfeiffer is good. Good use of Beatle's music (cover versions).
The Pledge (2001)
Well worth the admission price
Very good and interesting story about a descent into insanity. Sean shows a nice directorial flair, some beautiful imagery (birds, rainbow etc) and Montana scenery.
However I would have to fault the film for leaving too many questions unanswered; it's all well and good allowing the audience to make up their own mind, but the story could have made much more impact by having more definites as opposed to maybe's (you'll have to watch the film to see what I mean!!)
Just a thought, but I thought the film's story could have been given a fantastic twist if Jack's character had turned out to be the 'wizard' (a spilt-personality of himself which his insanity did not allow him to see)....would have given the film a real chill......what do you reckon Seán?
Disco Pigs (2001)
Pigs in muck
This is a terrible movie; the central theme of the movie seems to be "What is love?"; a noble question to ask, for sure. However when deep questions like this are posed one expects some sort of intelligible answers to be given.
However no such answers are given; the only answers suggested seems to be "Love is taking advantage of the person who loves you" or "Love is killing the person who loves you".
This movie is without any heart whatsoever; now that I am actually putting my thoughts 'on paper' I realise that the movie contains no representation of 'love' at all. The principal male character merely displays a morbid dependency on his 'love'.
An uplifting movie this ain't; it celebrates the worst aspects of humanity. Avoid at all costs.
Box of Moonlight (1996)
Very Enjoyable
The previous reviewer reckons that this is a movie that you will remember all of your life.....well, I don't know if it's that good but I'm sure it will stay in my mind for a while at least. This is a very enjoyable film; John Turturro does a brilliant job portraying Mr. Robot who finds oil for his joints. Sam Rockwell does a good job as the guy who provides him with the oil. The actresses who play the women who lubricate both of them (oil not involved!) were not up to scratch however.
However there are a few scenes in the film that don't quite fit the bill; why was the hard-done-by storyline of one of the aforementioned women brought into the film? It was a bit of a silly "coincidence" to have the two guys "bump into" the girls in a supermarket before meeting them swimming in the lake.
Also, I didn't think that the phone-sex storyline added anything to the film at all. Also, John's character's neurosis should have been more fully fleshed out; we are not given meaningful explanations of why he developed into such an automaton.
I would also take exception to the morality portrayed by the film; have a bit of a fling if you can manage to deceive your wife. John's character's wife (and kid) get treated like dirt throughout the film and even in the last few scenes when there is a chance of redemption for this treatment the director spurns the chance and promotes the line that everything done by John's character was all fine and dandy.
I would keep my out for movies directed by Tom DiCillo based on this output.
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
You can do better than this Jim
Well, I'm a bit of a Jim Carrey fan and so I was very much looking forward to this film. However I was to be sharply disappointed; there were one or two scenes in the film which had me laughing out loud, but that was all.
I was offended by the treatment of black people in the film and the sickening treatment of the albino character. The director/writer tried to nullify this treatment by becoming all serious and Jim's character issued an apology to the albino character, but how can you be serious in a film like this? The afterthought apology just made the whole thing worse.
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
I think he likes it!
While I'm no great admirer of Mike Leigh's previous works or indeed the collected works of Gilbert & Sullivan this movie won me over completely. All the characters are wonderfully acted and the writer allows all characters in the movie (no matter how small) to tell a little story of their own (in conjunction with the main story).
It is a wonderfully warm movie and almost three hours long! (Personally I could have watched it another three!!)
Not only is it warm, but its a comedy as well; the "3 little girls" scene was my favorite.
I can't remember the actor's name but the woman who played the alcohol-inclined singer is absolutely brilliant; sensuality personified in everything she did, where did she get that wonderful voice (spoken and singing).
This is the first film in a long, long time (Hannah and her Sisters) that I will go see for a second time. Anyhow, enough of my praise, go see it for yourself, I'll be surprised if you're disappointed and not contributing further praise to it on IMDb's user's comments!