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fandyllic
Reviews
Earthsea (2004)
Producers succeeded, mini-series failed
First I will admit, I did not watch the whole mini-series all the way through and jumped around bit after the first part because I was so disappointed. I will also add that I've read the books a few times, so my expectations were probably high, especially after Lord of the Rings.
Before I give my comments on the mini-series, after reading the various comments from other viewers, I'm convinced the standards of viewers have dropped and the shallowness of the average viewer cannot be overestimated. There is no way this mini-series should rate above a 5 of 10.
The acting was not bad, but I did get the sense that most of the cast was completely unfamiliar with the books and the stories. The whole series felt mundane and unoriginal. The fresh minimalism of the Earthsea series was lost in the typical fantasy treatment given to the stories. As a reader, I was also disappointed in the casting and the dramatic differences between the books and the mini-series.
You could tell from the casting and the way situations were changed in the mini-series that the producers were trying for a younger audience used to Harry Potter and other highly derivative fantasy works (the J.K. Rowling fans will want to murder me, of course). The books could be considered slow by today's standards, but the had an undercurrent of sadness that made them more powerful. The aura of the books was completely lost in the mini-series. There was no sense of history like you feel when watching Lord of the Rings or some of the better fantasy movies (Dragonslayer, say).
The 3 stars I give the mini-series comes from the generally good production values and the commitment to making a mini-series rather than trying to compress the whole series into 2 hours or so. I would have preferred that they had just made a 2 hour movie perhaps compressing the first two books, than the radical changes and alterations that were made for the mini-series. In short, it was a typical Hollywood-corrupted production that had so much promise only to be ruined. Overall though, the mini-series was a below average effort for such a promising story. The producers of the mini-series should have just said it was "inspired" by Earthsea and used a different name. A decent example of this type of thing is the recent Sci-Fi channel mini- series, "Tin Man". They didn't call it Oz anything and totally re-imagined Wizard of Oz. It wasn't great, but much better than Earthsea.
One can only hope that the failure of the Earthsea mini-series won't close the door to future attempts to re-imagine the books on film. Lord of the Rings was famously messed up by a partial animated version, so there is always hope.
The Great New Wonderful (2005)
Pointless... must be a New York thing
Probably the worst movie I've seen in awhile.
Seems to be a very insular New Yorker oriented movie with no particular direction or point. Very slow. A mix of peculiar and pretentious.
If someone has told you this movie is a comedy, it is not. It is more like an ensemble slice- of-life that follows 5 sets of people in New York. The only even amusing portion of the movie is the part which follows a couple of middle-aged, east-Indian body guards. The other stories are not particularly interesting and even annoying. Various good actors are wasted, including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Olympia Dukakis and Stephen Colbert.
I suppose this movie is supposed to reflect the unease of New yorkers after 9-11, but if so it seems the worst sort of exploitation. The movie mostly just causes unease.
See this movie if you like scenes of post 9-11 New York and you don't mind being bored and uncomfortable for about an hour and a half.
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
Please comment on the movie!
IMDD comments are for commenting on the movie. Please leave your EV1 fan-boy or anti-EV1 BS out of here unless you have seen the movie and want to comment on it. Also, you are not rating the EV1, GM, the auto industry, the US, the energy industry, etc. You are rating the movie, so rate it as appropriate. If you didn't see the movie you shouldn't be rating anything.
On a side note, GM clearly only created the EV1 to comply with certain regulation while at the same time spending almost as much money fighting them. If GM really believed in alternative fuel cars, they would have a real hybrid by now and not have let Japan take the lead and leave them in the dust. But I'm really only saying this because IMDb won't take my comment unless it's 10 lines or more... how lame.
- Fandyllic