From start to finish this is really a tour de force with great cinematography, great sound editing and great interviews from those who knew Arthur Russell. I've seen so many music documentaries that have been underwhelming; Wild Combination was a breath of fresh air. Although I do not love all of Arthur Russell's music, this is certainly a documentary worth watching, profiling a fascinating person's life story. Hearing the perspectives of both his parents along with colleagues who respected and admired him (i.e. Allen Ginsburg, Phil Glass) is extremely compelling. I can't imagine not wanting to hear more of his music after experiencing this film.
Reviews
24 Reviews
Zodiac
(2007)
I have a dream
10 August 2007
that one day, someone will make a stupid, film-noir style, historical drama, with the pace of a snail on sedatives, that will slowly build for three and a half hours and then culminate in a paragraph-long explanation of historical events that say absolutely nothing. I feel so violated right now. I wish the zodiac killer had taken out David Fincher. Just because I am required by IMDb to make this comment longer, I must add that the acting was atrocious, and I feel ashamed for not having identified how bad this film was going to be in the first scene, when I thought it was strange that something that had been hailed as such a masterpiece would have had acting that was so unconvincing. let me be remiss by not complaining about the exposition, development and everything else that was wrong. screw Hollywood. thanks
Open Range
(2003)
worst-film-of-all-time candidate
2 January 2006
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-Boring!!!! All the way through. Don't get me wrong, I love Westerns, and Rob Duvall is incredible as an actor, but there is no way that this over-long garbagio deserves to be classified anywhere near to good. Whoever created the film score has succeeded in pioneering a new method of aurally torturing my inner conscience. Whenever I hear this music, I want to kill myself...not out of depression, but solely for the reason that I need to end the intense agony that this miminalist b.s. puts me through. You wanna hear good Western-movie music? I've got a whole of letters for you...E.N.N.I.O. M.O.R.R.I.C.O.N.E. Try those out for a change, you Hollywood-douche-bags, or at least try something similar. Not to say that that all Western stuff needs to sound like Morricone, but if I hear these dead sounding nothing-strings again in the theater, my body will lose control of its natural functions and I'll urinate myself. Please...for the love of God! But then, there's the rest of the movie. Total Crapola. Bad dialogue, horrifically bad plot, bad structure, bad movie poster, bad promotional campaign, bad acting all packaged for the adult American audience to deem as high art. Just because a movie is long and dramatic and because it references other movies, does not in any way make it good. Dances with Wolves was alright, I don't enjoy seeing Kevin Costner's buttcheeks, but I guess girls need to get some sometimes too. I got my copy at McDonald's 15 some odd years ago, and have enjoyed it. I've never wanted the main characters in a film to get axed more than I did watching this. The only way to make this one better is if you reduced the whole thing to 30 seconds, you could easily summarize the plot in that time, but then it would be overpriced. I don't want to go on about this anymore, but I'm glad you read this review. Don't see this movie. Go rent something good, like the Magnificent Seven or something.
King Kong
(2005)
Nice try Universal
24 December 2005
How the hell can you promote a movie saying that it's predicted to beat all box office records, before it even comes out. Peter Jackson directing King Kong? Who the hell would think this is a good idea, I mean really.... First of all, King Kong, with the exception of the original movie, sucks. All of the remakes suck, why would the jack black one be any better? Secondly, CGI sucks. I'm sick of it. Everyone knows its lame, why must it persist. CGI keeps people like me out of the theaters waiting for the day when I can tell the difference between the monsters in the 5th element and the dinosaurs in Kong, and when Yoda loses his kung fu abilities. Back the hell off the American public, Universal. You can take your Kong Burgers and shove 'em. Everyone else, go back to Narnia.
Cool Hand Luke
(1967)
Another failure to communicate?
20 June 2002
Warning: Spoilers
*SPOILERS* This was a tremendous movie, except for the LAST SCENE! What's with that corny montage? What Drag says is fine, but to have a montage of Luke smiling? There's no other montage in the damn movie! What's it supposed to be, Drag remembering all the times Luke smiled?! That doesn't even make any sense. I guess this was just a case of bad editing.
Roy Lichtenstein
(1991)
Lichtenstein in a nutshell
18 June 2002
The documentary is a very interesting and informative survey of Lichtenstein's work, structured around interviews of various art critics along with continuous commentary by Lichtenstein himself. Lichtenstein analyzes several of his most famous pieces and explains his artistic processes and development in detail. There is also fascinating footage of Lichtenstein working in his studio. Refreshingly, Chris Hunt does a good job in presenting the material in a very unbiased, objective way. The film appears to be part of a series of documentaries for a British TV channel.
Attack of the Crap
16 June 2002
Warning: Spoilers
Although I'm not a Star Wars fanatic (I certainly don't read the books or anything), I love the old Star Wars movies. In fact, when I was littler, The Empire Strikes Back was my favorite film. Now that I'm older, I respect them for what they are: incredibly creative, exciting and touching films. I have yet to see Episode 1. My friend recommended Episode 2 to me, telling me that it was better than its predecessor, but warning me "don't see it if you expect anything more than a Star Wars movie." Maybe I just have a nostalgic love for the first trilogy, but I would never think that they were anywhere near as poor, in any way, as this new garbage. I can't think of a high budget movie that I've seen that has such bad directing, bad acting, bad casting, bad special effects (or lack thereof), bad music, bad dialogue and bad plot, as ATTACK OF THE CLONES (bad title too). The reviewers on this site giving this movie positive reviews must all be brainwashed. Maybe they're all just excited that it's better than Episode One, which I can only assume must be the worst movie ever made, considering this one definitely belongs in the bottom 100.
Let's begin with the directing. WHAT THE HELL DID GEORGE LUKAS TELL HIS ACTORS? My only guess that the conversations went something like this... LUKAS: Hey Sam, sit in that chair and say your line. S.JACKSON: How do you want me to deliver it? LUKAS: Don't worry about that. It doesn't really matter. All the animated creatures don't really show any emotion anyway. In general, you should just say your line like you're reading it. Oh, but if you're supposed to be angry or upset, just screw up your face a little bit.
S.JACKSON: Okay. I guess...
I can't begin to describe how boring the non-action sequences are in this film. The actors aren't interacting at all. It's astounding.
Furthermore, talk about a classic example of bad acting, Ewan McGregor spends the entire movie doing a really bad impression of the actor who played Obi Wan in the original series...uuuugh, yuck. Whoever cast this movie needs to get their head examined. I've always learned that one of the prime objectives in film, especially a drama, like this one, is to suspend the audience's disbelief (perhaps George Lukas was striving to suspend belief with this one). How could anyone accept Samuel L. Jackson, one of the most prolific actors in Hollywood, as "Mace Windu" and Jimmy Smits, another instantly recognizable household name, as Senator "Bail Organa". My God, Lukas could have at least picked actors who haven't reached idol status yet, but no, he had to make his budget LARGER. The majority of people who liked this casting probably just liked seeing Sam Jackson meditating next to a poorly animated Yoda (SHAFT AND YODA TOGETHER IN THE SAME ROOM, MEDITATING LIKE BUDDHISTS! AWESOME!).
The digital special effects were disappointing and not convincing. I prefer people in elaborate costumes to the digitally animated, and amazingly generic looking, critters that Lukas used here. You've seen 'em in the fifth element, in the trailer for men in black II (before the film started) and here they are again, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Go figure. Furthermore, juxtaposing digitally composed fantasy settings/landscapes(as ridiculous as they are on their own), with a real, easily recognizable, famous swiss tourist attraction was appalling.
The music as a whole sounded like a parody of the original score (in other words, it was fitting). The dialogue was laughably atrocious. Probably my favorite line *POSSIBLE SPOILER* was when Anakin (or little Ann(ie?,y?,e??) as the Senator calls him) tells the senator, "I didn't just kill the men...but the WOMEN...and the CHILDREN TOO!" "Ooh am I a bad guy. I'm such an evil dude that I use cliches to describe my horrible deeds." *NO MORE SPOILERS* The plot is so delightfully convoluted that thousands of viewers at home will be able to watch this movie in less than half it's running time when it comes out on VHS. They can all simply fast-forward to the action sequences and not miss anything important in the film. In fact they might as well fast-forward through the whole thing, given that the ending credits are by far the movie's finest sequence.
I'm getting tired of writing, so I'll just say that there are so many problems with this movie that this review hasn't even nearly given it justice. PLEASE, DON'T DISMISS THIS REVIEW JUST BECAUSE IT'S NEGATIVE. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET, PLEASE, WAIT TILL COMES OUT ON VIDEO. AT LEAST THEN YOU CAN GET THE PLEASURE OF TAKING THE TAPE OUT OF THE MACHINE AND SMASHING IT TO BITS IN FRUSTRATION.
Let's begin with the directing. WHAT THE HELL DID GEORGE LUKAS TELL HIS ACTORS? My only guess that the conversations went something like this... LUKAS: Hey Sam, sit in that chair and say your line. S.JACKSON: How do you want me to deliver it? LUKAS: Don't worry about that. It doesn't really matter. All the animated creatures don't really show any emotion anyway. In general, you should just say your line like you're reading it. Oh, but if you're supposed to be angry or upset, just screw up your face a little bit.
S.JACKSON: Okay. I guess...
I can't begin to describe how boring the non-action sequences are in this film. The actors aren't interacting at all. It's astounding.
Furthermore, talk about a classic example of bad acting, Ewan McGregor spends the entire movie doing a really bad impression of the actor who played Obi Wan in the original series...uuuugh, yuck. Whoever cast this movie needs to get their head examined. I've always learned that one of the prime objectives in film, especially a drama, like this one, is to suspend the audience's disbelief (perhaps George Lukas was striving to suspend belief with this one). How could anyone accept Samuel L. Jackson, one of the most prolific actors in Hollywood, as "Mace Windu" and Jimmy Smits, another instantly recognizable household name, as Senator "Bail Organa". My God, Lukas could have at least picked actors who haven't reached idol status yet, but no, he had to make his budget LARGER. The majority of people who liked this casting probably just liked seeing Sam Jackson meditating next to a poorly animated Yoda (SHAFT AND YODA TOGETHER IN THE SAME ROOM, MEDITATING LIKE BUDDHISTS! AWESOME!).
The digital special effects were disappointing and not convincing. I prefer people in elaborate costumes to the digitally animated, and amazingly generic looking, critters that Lukas used here. You've seen 'em in the fifth element, in the trailer for men in black II (before the film started) and here they are again, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Go figure. Furthermore, juxtaposing digitally composed fantasy settings/landscapes(as ridiculous as they are on their own), with a real, easily recognizable, famous swiss tourist attraction was appalling.
The music as a whole sounded like a parody of the original score (in other words, it was fitting). The dialogue was laughably atrocious. Probably my favorite line *POSSIBLE SPOILER* was when Anakin (or little Ann(ie?,y?,e??) as the Senator calls him) tells the senator, "I didn't just kill the men...but the WOMEN...and the CHILDREN TOO!" "Ooh am I a bad guy. I'm such an evil dude that I use cliches to describe my horrible deeds." *NO MORE SPOILERS* The plot is so delightfully convoluted that thousands of viewers at home will be able to watch this movie in less than half it's running time when it comes out on VHS. They can all simply fast-forward to the action sequences and not miss anything important in the film. In fact they might as well fast-forward through the whole thing, given that the ending credits are by far the movie's finest sequence.
I'm getting tired of writing, so I'll just say that there are so many problems with this movie that this review hasn't even nearly given it justice. PLEASE, DON'T DISMISS THIS REVIEW JUST BECAUSE IT'S NEGATIVE. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET, PLEASE, WAIT TILL COMES OUT ON VIDEO. AT LEAST THEN YOU CAN GET THE PLEASURE OF TAKING THE TAPE OUT OF THE MACHINE AND SMASHING IT TO BITS IN FRUSTRATION.
The Tenant
(1976)
sorry guys
21 November 2001
As Polanski films go, this one ain't that great. Although The Tenant has a very original plot and Polanski did a great job acting in it, the movie is just simply not at par with some of Polanski's best for many reasons. After the first twenty minutes of the movie, it is easy to predict that Trelkovsky will eventually take on the identity of madame schule and try to kill himself, and given that the viewer knows that the movie ends in about an hour and a half, the viewer can also easily predict when Trelkovsky's going to jump. So what happens between the time the viewer figures out the ending and the actual end of the movie? Nothing much...at least, nothing so terribly fascinating that it makes the movie feel worthwhile to watch. Although there is dark humor in the movie, instead of coming across as something particularly creative and ingenious, the humor seems like sort of a cop out; perhaps it was hard to make the film frightening, so instead it was turned into a dark comedy. Yet, the humor in The Tenant was not particularly funny to me because it all seemed a bit cliched (except for the second to last scene). The voiceovers are terrible in the movie as well, and the score, although pleasantly pretty with plenty of nice clarinet obligatos, seemed as a whole, inappropriate. The Tenant isn't a terrible movie, it just doesn't hold a candle to some of Polanski's other films.
Batman & Robin
(1997)
startlingly fantastic
7 October 2001
It seemed like quite a feat to produce a Batman movie that could top Batman Forever, but Schumacher and the gang did it with much aplomb. A visual and emotional tour-de-force, Batman and Robin is easily the finest comic-genre film ever created. Clooney proves himself the best Batman by far by giving a surprisingly realistic performance. He seems to have captured the Bruce Wayne demeanor, cultivated it, packaged it and shipped it out to the comic-book-loving American audience so that we can all relish and treasure it. He is a very gifted man, as he proved to us in ER, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and From Dusk Till Dawn, and as he proves once again here in this film. Thurman is genuinely creepy (and oh so undeniably seductive and sexy!) as Poison Ivy. She brings life to an otherwise mundane role. The seductive dance she performs in a gorilla costume stands as my favorite part of the movie. Never before had I been so attracted to a gorilla!! Chris O'Donnell puts an interesting psychological tone to the movie playing Robin as a complex and enigmatic character. In the movie, unlike the comic, Robin is insecure, yet confident, mature, yet adolescent, and attractive, yet togged in garish garb. Holistically, O'Donnell's Robin is a walking paradox. In this movie, Robin is so uncannily complex that it brings to mind the question: "could Kafka or Faulkner have done a better job than Akiva Goldsman and Joel Schumacher?" Perhaps not. And, lest we forget, Arnold's Schwartzenegger's performance in this masterpiece was nothing less than spellbinding. As Nobel prize laureate and two-time Olympic decathloner Victor Freeze, Schwartzenegger finally proves that he can really act. Not only is Schwartzenegger uproariously funny and convincingly terrifying, he plays Mr. Freeze as an obviously ingenious, yet tortured man. We, as an audience, can commiserate with Freeze easily; he is a very strong-willed person, yet he must live his life with obvious physical handicaps (the necessity for cold) and the desperate need for love. Breathtaking Arnold, breathtaking. Aside from the acting, the movie has an undeniably engaging plot, and what an ingenious script! This, in a sense, is a Hitchcockian mystery, a classic cult teenage angst film, a heart-wrenching drama, an edge-of-your seat action-suspense film, and a subtly brilliant comedy all rolled into one! Who would expect such an interesting and eclectic mix of styles and genres to be a Batman movie?! More importantly, who would expect a Batman movie to be so captivating, to have such frightening villains and likeable heroes and to be so downright funny! Hahahahahaha! Oh God, I wish more movies like this would come out of Hollywood!!
a morally rich and valuable tale disguised as a sex flick
1 October 2001
Cellblock Sisters is a name that smacks of Caged Heat or other similar women-in-prison soft-core films, but be warned...Cellblock Sisters is not about sex. At all. Sisterhood has been a long forgotten theme in hollywood. Sure there was Little Women, but what other major movies have stressed the importance of loyalty and trust amongst sisters? That's where Cellblock Sisters comes to the rescue. In a captivating story of love and devotion, two sisters (separated as infants and meeting for the first time in their twenties!) risk their lives for one another in a dangerous, all women state prison. This movie made me wish I had a sister...someone I could trust, love AND SOMEONE WHO I COULD KICK HOLY ASS WITH!! YEAH! Cellblock Sisters let me learn that the only bitch bitchier than the superbitch is that bitch's long lost sister. The bitch is on!!! (Bitch)
Scanners III: The Takeover
(1991)
a testament to the power of Tibetan Buddhism
1 October 2001
Let me start out by saying that this is a wonderful film. When I rented this movie initially I thought that it was going to be one of those low budget action films with awful special effects, terrible dialogue, terrible plot and gratuitous nudity (like the highlander movies). I was dead wrong.
Scanners III is a wonderfully cerebral film, chock full of allusions and references to American folklore, popular science fiction novels of the past century (i.e. 1984 and just about everything by Michael Chricton), Huey Lewis and The News song lyrics (I've got a brand new drug) and the religion and philosophy of the Algonquin Indians. What an analytical treat!!
As the iconography in this film suggests, American culture is dominated by the media, the pharmecutical companies, and cheap dares we do to impress girls on Saturday nights. We are soulless zombies, only acting on impulses that have been passed down to us by our parents. If we only used our heads (as Alex Monet does in this film (monet is an obvious reference to the french impressionistic artist...there are many more delicious reference-goodies in this gem!)), we could overcome the social and mental chains that are hindering us from developing as a society.
The film is beckoning us to cast away homburg hats and black suits of the nineteen forties for more casual clothing, eschew hot concentual sex with busty mental-hospital nurses for passionate lovemaking with loved ones, to send christianity and all of western society to the junkyard and take up Tibetan Buddhism, the only religion that has the capability to give one enough strength to overcome one's weaknesses. In no way is this film just another sequel to David Cronenberg's far inferior film Scanners. This is a treatise on how to live life successfully. I urge you to watch it immediately.
Scanners III is a wonderfully cerebral film, chock full of allusions and references to American folklore, popular science fiction novels of the past century (i.e. 1984 and just about everything by Michael Chricton), Huey Lewis and The News song lyrics (I've got a brand new drug) and the religion and philosophy of the Algonquin Indians. What an analytical treat!!
As the iconography in this film suggests, American culture is dominated by the media, the pharmecutical companies, and cheap dares we do to impress girls on Saturday nights. We are soulless zombies, only acting on impulses that have been passed down to us by our parents. If we only used our heads (as Alex Monet does in this film (monet is an obvious reference to the french impressionistic artist...there are many more delicious reference-goodies in this gem!)), we could overcome the social and mental chains that are hindering us from developing as a society.
The film is beckoning us to cast away homburg hats and black suits of the nineteen forties for more casual clothing, eschew hot concentual sex with busty mental-hospital nurses for passionate lovemaking with loved ones, to send christianity and all of western society to the junkyard and take up Tibetan Buddhism, the only religion that has the capability to give one enough strength to overcome one's weaknesses. In no way is this film just another sequel to David Cronenberg's far inferior film Scanners. This is a treatise on how to live life successfully. I urge you to watch it immediately.
La Jetée
(1962)
the beatles to Gilliam's monkees
29 May 2001
I saw la jetee on DVD and was overall quite satisfied with the little film. It struck me as sort of a condensed remake of Hitchcock's Vertigo, but far more dreamlike. La Jetee is more open to interpretation than 12 Monkeys; you can never be sure whether "the man" is actually being transported through time or whether he is merely in a dream. Also, the relationship the man has with his love interest is whole lot more logical in this film than it is in 12 Monkeys. Overall, I thought it was far more sophisticated than Gilliam's movie, and I certainly didn't think it was overpretentious and boring. If you're curious enough, check it out.
Carnosaur 3: Primal Species
(1996)
fantastic...
7 May 2001
What makes the Carnosaur so frightening is that it kills for the sake of killing. The army kills and destroys for national security. The terrorists kill for their own personal benefit. But the Carnosaur... it just kills! If the carnosaurs killed exclusively for dietary purposes (i.e. they were hungry, they didn't get enough protein/calcium/fat/B-vitamins), they wouldn't necessarily eat humans. The scene in Carnosaur 3, in which the soldiers bait the dinosaur with non- human meat and the Carnosaur instinctively attacks the humans exemplifies how Carnosaurs do not follow their stomachs. If the Carno were hungry, it would have just went for the leg of ham (or whatever the hell the soldiers used for bait), but instead it went for the far inferior human meat. They are called Carnosaurs not because they eat meat, but because they are far different from the reptiles that walked the earth eons ago. They are much more unscrupulous, depraved, stealthy, sexy and cunning than the large clumsy animals seen in Jurassic Park. The Carnosaur is the chthonic species of what we refer to as Dinosaur. Beware their wrath.
Scanners
(1981)
obviously made before the invention of the scanner...
2 May 2001
Don't get me wrong--I own this movie and I LOVE David Cronenberg's work. Most of the time, Cronenberg manages to be both satirical and creepy, which is probably why I enjoy his movies so much. This movie, however, is just plain GOOFY. Scanners are mutant humans who are born with super-psychic powers and are powerful enough to make a person's head explode just by thinking about him. OOOKAAYY, maybe that works... Scanners essentially have the power to control peoples' nervous systems, and because "a computer has a nervous system too" halfway through the movie they start blowing up computers. RIIIIIGHT... At one point in the movie, a scanner "scans" someone and consequently makes the person believe that the scanner is actually his mother. At another time in the movie, a scanner gets scanned by another scanner, a baby, IN UTERO. WHOAAA! That's not creepy. That's not satirical. THAT'S JUST STUPID. This movie was probably cool for it's time. Probably.
8MM
(1999)
are you kidding?
1 May 2001
Although this movie is not disturbingly gory and does not have so much nudity that it will make you vomit, 8mm is just plain DUMB. snooweatinganima was right, there are so many cliches in the damn thing that it's impossible to take it seriously. Although I have to admit that "the machine" was one of the more humorous characters I have ever scene on film. He bore a pleasant resemblance to Bane from Batman & Robin, another noble attempt by the amazing Joel Schummacher. Make sure that when you see this movie that you aren't watching it on a dark stormy night, in a slum, next to a cemetery, on a broken TV, with loud scary techno music blasting in the background, or god forbid, you might be attacked by a group of bloodthirsty hard-core porno makers!
Ice Cream Man
(1995)
Let there be a boy named Tuna!
10 April 2001
God made this movie. I know He did. Maybe He made it indirectly, perhaps through Paul Norman or Clint Howard, but He definitely made it. After seeing this movie, I ask myself every morning when I look into the mirror, "who is the Pied Piper now?", "is it me?"...I suppose there will be no way for me to know the truth until it's too late. In the meantime, however, I will watch this movie endlessly and marvel at its magnificence. For those of you who haven't seen it yet: KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR CERTAIN DISTINCTIVE SCARS OF CHRIST!
Sleepy Hollow
(1999)
Christopher Walken ROCKS!!
1 April 2001
This movie is definitely a 10. The set is amazing, the story is original (it's not even close to Washington Irving), and, like I mentioned in the title of this message, Christopher Walken ROCKS!! His only line in the movie is shhh, and when he says it his teeth are all screwed up. There's even a scene where he rides around on a fake horse! Burton's done it again!
Basquiat
(1996)
everyone with a brain should see this movie
1 April 2001
I cannot believe that Basquiat isn't high in the top 250; it is easily the best movie I have ever seen. No matter whether or not you like/liked Basquiat's art, this movie is amazing. In fact, you'll probably enjoy the movie more if you don't like his art. Basquiat was a crackhead who chose to live on the street. None of his art demonstrated amazing artistic technique, yet with the help of some exorbitantly rich, twisted and influential people in the art world, he rose from the gutter and gained international stardom. Whether he deserved his fame, wealth and glory is addressed throughout the film, but the movie is more about how his self-destructive tendencies managed to get the better of him and lead him to an early death. The movie is very depressing, but also inspiring. The acting is fantastic overall, although Dennis Hopper was awful as Bruno and I wish that Courtney Love were not cast as Big Pink. The film itself is even a work of art. Don't see it if you're only into mystery, horror, suspense, or action films, but if you like art or are at all intellectual, see it see it see it see it see it!
Vampire's Kiss
(1988)
very, very misunderstood
1 April 2001
Vampire's Kiss is a comedy. In no way is it supposed to be akin to legitimate vampire movies. It parodies horror films and satirizes life in the big city, much like other popular films, such as American Psycho, do. In my opinion, Vampire's Kiss is much better than American Psycho because instead of trying to be creepy and ultimately failing, Vampire's Kiss is hilarious. I gave it a ten. I'm certain that I'll be seeing it over and over again.
ME, 2006: Looking back at this comment about the film and writing anew from a later date, I can certainly recognize why this movie isn't for everyone. If you are a fan of absurd, inane, dark, wry humor, and you enjoy watching movies for subtlety and detail THIS IS IT. Watch out for the mimes, and enjoy.
ME, 2006: Looking back at this comment about the film and writing anew from a later date, I can certainly recognize why this movie isn't for everyone. If you are a fan of absurd, inane, dark, wry humor, and you enjoy watching movies for subtlety and detail THIS IS IT. Watch out for the mimes, and enjoy.
Macbeth
(1971)
perhaps the BEST movie I have ever seen
1 April 2001
Warning: Spoilers
This movie cemented Polanski as my favorite director. It sickens me that some of the other people who reviewed it called it the worst movie they had ever seen. GET A LIFE! WATCH SOME SITCOMS OR SOMETHING! DO WHATEVER YOU FLAKES DO, JUST DON'T WRITE ANYMORE COMMENTS FOR IMDb! Macbeth is an incredibly dark and violent play. In the beginning of the play, MacBeth is a noble warrior and by the end of it he is a psychotic serial killer. Polanski's interpretation is dark, chilling and frightening--as it should be. Polanski's violence is IN NO WAY GRATUITOUS; it's realistic. Polanski has done Shakespeare a great honor by making a script that was made for the stage seem so unillusory. MacBeth's character is no longer something foreign and detached from us, he is real and plausible. The ties Polanski makes throughout the film to Charles Manson and the Sharon Tate murder are undeniably poignant. Through learning about MacBeth, one can easily develop ideas as to what could drive someone to murder. Also, Polanski has unique interpretations of some of the scenes in the play. For this reason, it is even better watch Polanski's film while reading the play simultaneously. *SPOILER WARNING* Early on in the film, MacDuff asks MacBeth where the witches had disappeared off to. (This is right after one of the witches delivers the prophecy that he will be king.) In the play, MacBeth answers MacDuff by saying that they vanished into the air. This is usually interpreted by directors to mean that MacBeth didn't see where they had gone off to. In the Polanski movie, Macbeth DOES see where they went and subsequently lies to MacDuff. This is the first time Macbeth lies in the movie. Oh how I love this movie so...and the amazing soundtrack by the Third Ear Band.
Black Orpheus
(1959)
a brilliant film with music that made Bonfa famous
1 April 2001
This is one of the only movies that has ever made me weep. It seems a little contrived in the beginning when all the characters just happen to be named after mythological characters, but by the end of the movie, one forgets all about how the movie could have been corny. It's definitely the best subtitled film I've seen, and I hope more people vote on it so that it can get on the top 250.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
(1989)
good?
31 March 2001
As I watched this movie, I kept waiting to be surprised. I ultimately found the end of the film to be very anticlimactic. My only real surprise was how consonantly the film ended. I gave it an 8. Overall, I liked it, and my anticipation for a huge plot turn or terribly tragic ending kept me glued to my television screen for the full 100 or so minutes. I definitely cannot give it higher than 8.
Dead Ringers
(1988)
fantastic
31 March 2001
I loved this movie. It is a successful blend of humor and horror that kept me captivated all the way through. It is so creepy, yet so satirical that it is often easy to laugh at times. Even if one does not find the plot interesting, the outstanding performance of Jeremy Irons playing two identical twins is enough to keep one fascinated up until the end. Dead Ringers has to be one of the most memorable movies I have ever seen. It would be a shame for anyone to overlook it.
one of my favorite films
26 March 2001
The Naked Gun is hilarious. It's the kind of movie that you can watch over and over again and still laugh hysterically. Montalban is brilliant, and overall I think the movie is much funnier than the TV show(Police Squad). It includes some interesting foreshadowing with O.J. Simpson playing Nordberg, a cop who gets nearly shot to death while prowling around in an all black costume at night. This movie is far funnier than any of the Saturday Night Live spin-offs or anything by Adam Sandler, Mike Meyers or Chris Farley(RIP).
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