dwpittelli Reviews

Rollerball (1975)

It's a Dystopia

[16 June 2002]

Rollerball (1975) is, of course, a Dystopia. If you do not want to watch a dystopia, or if you are seeking the thrill of violence without painful emotion, you won't like it. Instead, watch The Terminator (BTW, a great movie).

Thus, Rollerball is like all dystopias a warning of where we might go, and thus at least implicitly of where we already are. Man's perpetual need for violence, and also for security, is finally sated, and this is where it leads us. Spectator sports spectaculors are the crack and the opiate of the masses as well as the vicarious source of a castrati society's manliness.

The movie is a bit dated, of course, in large part because its critiques have been repeated and become cliche, and also because we have grown used to what was then novel (like a heavy does of spectator sports).

Meng hu dou kuang long (1974)

Aptly titled

[10/10 · 29 December 2001]

Typical (indeed cliched) kung fu movie plot, but with inordinately huge amounts of brutal, and indeed beautiful, kung fu fighting. All fans of the genre must see this masterpiece of ultraviolence. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it for sale or rent anywhere since I bought it for a gift several years ago.

The Dam Busters (1955)

Interesting movie, but dated by special effects & racism

[8/10 · 11 June 2001]

One thing I would add to otherwise very complete & dead-on previous comment: There is a black dog in the movie named "nigger," and this name is thrown around repeatedly and casually. If you have children watching the movie, it might upset them, or lead them to use the term. Consider discussing the word's historical context and inappropriateness with them.

That said, the movie is well worth watching for the way it delves into the technical problems and how they are solved; it may inspire children in the same way that watching, say, a biography of Edison might.

Highball (1997)

A miserably tedious and pointless film

[1/10 · 5 March 2001]

Ignore the blurb on the VHS box, the movie is not about a couple's hot parties with hip friends, it is about a couple's awful parties with jerk friends. Now, that might not be a bad thing -- in fact, I think it could be easier to make a good movie about bad parties than about good ones -- but the advertising is dishonest.

Much worse, though, is the the pointless and boring character of the movie, which is about a bunch of stupid or verbally sadistic "friends" who mostly don't like each other. While I've known cliques that keep getting together despite frictions between some members, it's inconceivable that these people would keep getting together for these abusive and tedious holiday events. Also, the couples' relationships, which come and go between these parties, are unexplained and mostly unexplored, as are some individuals' character changes, and indeed, almost everything that doesn't happen at the parties themselves.