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loukia12
Reviews
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
Good but not a masterpiece!
Although i can't say i was thrilled, i quite enjoyed watching this film. Filmed entirely on location, using many locals as well as many professional greek actors, the director succeeded in conveying the atmosphere of the time(Cephallonia in the 40's) to the audience. The dramatic, unspoiled landscape of the island provided some of the most magical scenes of the film,despite the fact that it did not receive any help from the music score, which was surprisingly bland,unemotional and overally unsatisfactory,especially towards the most dramatic final scenes. Moving on to the plot, i was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of the historical inconsistencies and inaccuracies found in the book, were omitted.Predominantly, i am referring to the depiction of the greek partisans, who were presented as brutal animals by the author of the book,that only contributed to an eternal, internal strife, and failed to offer any actual help to the enslaved greeks. In reality however, the partisans liberated significant parts of Greece during the 4 year german occupation, as well as helping the allies in many instances.Internal strife and civil war did not broke off until after the liberation of Greece.In the film the partisans and especially Mandras were presented in a more realistic and complex manner.However i was very disappointed at the way the actual love-affair was presented. I have already seen the film twice and despite all my efforts i failed to realise exactly when did Pelagia and Corelli stopped disliking each other and fell in love.Furthermore, the first 45 or so minutes of the film,consist of various events crammed in badly sewn together scenes, which make it quite difficult for anyone to actually enjoy the film, since all are busy trying to figure out what is going on.Moving on to the acting, i will agree with practically everyone who has seen the film, that Cage was horribly miscast(to put it mildly)as Captain Corelli.He failed in every way to convey Corelli's sensitivity,love of life,but also confusion when faced with the brutality of the germans.All that he was able to convince us of, was that he can't sing(notice a shot of his back when he is suppossed to be singing at a high note). Cruz on the other hand was very good as Pelagia, but unfortunately, her great acting was overshadowed by Cage's feeble attempts to act. John Hart's performance was rather mediocre. He provided respectable consistent acting throughout the film, but lacked originality and depth of emotions. Irene Papas on the other hand was excellent, and her performance really added life and passion to all the scenes she appeared in(which were rather limited i am afraid).Finally, Christian Beale, was very good as well, as Mandras, and managed to convey the two conflicting sides of his character. Generally, this was a good enough film, which however could have been a masterpiece had the script been more consisted and had the acting been more substantial.
Wing Commander (1999)
....and I thought "Starship Troopers" was as bad as it gets
I have just seen this film on tv, only because my friends insisted, and could not resist adding a comment. **SPOILER ALERT**I was laughing hysterically throughout the film, and could not even stop when my friends where almost in tears over Rosie's death or at the end over Angel's and Blair's "passionate" kiss. I don't think i have seen a film this bad ever since i paid £4 to watch "Starship Troopers" at my local cinema, and the £4 are the only reason why i still think "Starship Troopers" was worse. To start with, this film has some of the sloppiest special effects i have ever seen in a sci-fi film, second only to the "Star-Trek:The original series" special effects which were practically non-existent. Even the spaceships looked like submarines from World War 2, and what was the deal with those hideous hats? If they bothered to use Freddie Prinze Jr, in order to obviously attract all those 13-14 year old girls, then why did they make him wear that hat that made him look like a frog, to say the least?(A friend suggested that this could be a conspiracy to ruin Freddie's career!!!). AND WHAT ABOUT THE ALIENS? I agree with another user's comment who said that they probably had not planned for the aliens to actually appear on screen but then changed their minds the last minute. This is the only reasonable explanation i can come up with to justify the fact that the aliens looked more like a couple of senile tyrranosaurus's in a retirement home. And finally, this is the first sci-fi film i have ever seen where a truck clears the airway by throughing the wreckage (including a dead body which noone bothered to retrieve)into space!!! 1/10
Ta kokkina fanaria (1963)
An excellent film
One of the best Greek films ever. The mere fact that so many talented well-known actors manage to blend together so masterfully without any one overshadowing another, makes this film a wonderful example of how good classic films are made! A definite must-see for anyone who truly appreciates cinema.