pmose Reviews

Knowing (2009)

Join Schientology or Burn

[2/10 · 19 November 2009]

Christian Propaganda beyond belief (no pun intended, really). Wwant to join the Scientology Church anyone? No? You'll BURN if you don't! Don't say this film didn't warn you!

If Nicolas Cage would have chosen his films a little better he could have been one of the most promising actors of his generation. But if he keeps appearing in awful stuff like this I fear what is left of his career will soon come to an end. But maybe someone whispered that to him already.

PS: the cute kids will probably starve to death within a week on Golden Wheat Field Planet. Or maybe there were some apples on that tree... (yes, that was a pun)

Goodnight Mr Tom (1998 TV Movie)

Heartwarming little film

[8/10 · 1 December 2008]

Quite a heartwarming little film and not just for the kids. John Thaw is brilliant as always (without any hint of Inspector Morse about him). The boy playing William did a good job as well though I didn't find him convincing in every scene. I loved the whole feel of the small village and the slower pace of life in those times. I also felt the scenes in London where historically accurate, as far as I could tell.

It strongly reminded me of a Scandinavian film I saw a couple of years ago called Mother of Mine. That film featured a boy being evacuated from Finland to Sweden during WW II. The wife of the family taking him in asked for a girl because (as it turns out)she lost her daughter. Getting a boy instead she completely ignores him. The fact that the boy speaks Finnish complicates matters even further. I highly recommend that film to anyone who enjoyed Goodnight Mr. Tom, it has the same feel to it.

10,000 BC (2008)

Dear Mr. Zimmer....

[1/10 · 25 August 2008]

OK, everyone knows by know this movie is pretty much cr*p. Just shut off all your bodily functions besides hand and mouth movement (you'll be needing those to eat popcorn), sit back and enjoy two hours of mindless blockbuster fun on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The only reason I'm writing this comment is to deliver my message to Hans Zimmer, former film score composer genius: Dear Mr. Zimmer, if you ever read this; please stop cheating your fans by copying & pasting from your former work and calling it a new soundtrack! I mean, the Gladiator soundtrack was pretty good (I even own the cd). Pirates was pretty much Gladiator. King Arthur was also Gladiator (but with a bit of Enya thrown in for good measure). And 10.000 BC is ... Gladiator! Only this time -yes, I must admit the sheer brilliance is overwhelming- with a bit of King Arthur in the mix! Kudos Mr. Zimmer, kudos.

Does anyone else feel cheated? I know I do...

The Invasion (I) (2007)

Boring and predictable

[2/10 · 31 May 2008]

I haven't seen the previous adaptations so I can't say anything sensible about that, but why was this movie even made? The average X-files episode is more interesting than this. Within 5 minutes the plot is crystal clear: an alien species has invaded, turning everyone into zombies. Dogs seem to recognize the infected people, blablabla. The first "victim" made me laugh so hard: if I got a sting from a super resistant alien space-fungus I would go see a doctor, but not this guy...

Nicole Kidman acts so ice cold and emotionless I couldn't tell if she was infected from the start or just a lousy actress. And why are she and Daniel "James Bond" Craig in this anyway? I mean, it's not like they need the money.

Mindnumbingly boring and predictable, but a good movie to watch very late at night when you're just too tired for a "thinking" movie that requires actually having a brain. For that, 2 out of 10.

Extraordinary Rendition (2007)

Intense low-budget drama

[9/10 · 30 April 2008]

Rather shocking drama, even after seeing documentaries about torture at Guantanamo, the concept of extraordinary rendition and the Hollywood version "Rendition" released in the same year. I don't really get why the Hollywood version was made at all, and so shortly after this film was released. This film succeeds very well in not only depicting the horrors that Zaafir goes through (the torture scenes are very difficult to watch sometimes) but also the aftermath of his ordeal. When the main character from "Rendition" comes home he happily cuddles his wife and newborn baby and that's it for a happy ending. Not very realistic in my opinion. This film shows how a man that endured such horrors as Zaafir did can't just pick up his old life again but is left scarred, probably for the rest of his life. It also shows that the way Muslims are treated by Western society can, in some cases, drive them into the arms of radical Islam. It's not explicitly stated in this film that this was the case for Zaafir, but he was at least much more into religion then he was before he was abducted and tortured. As for the acting; the actor playing Zaafir was very intense and Andy Serkis also did a fine job as the menacing interrogator.

I'd say: forget the Hollywood version with the Big Names and Big Budget, watch this instead.

Primo (2005 Video)

Moving and brilliant, but not easy to watch

[10/10 · 20 March 2008]

I was reluctant to watch this, having read the book about 10 years ago and vividly remembering all the horrible details. When I finally took the time to watch it, it took me some time to get used to the fact that this is not a film in the traditional sense. It feels a lot more like a play, a monologue delivered on a very stage-like set. But this for me is also the strong point of this film. With the simplest of means the grey, hopeless feel of a death camp is created; grey walls, doorways, a wooden chair, a table, light and sound. Antony Sher moves solemnly through these sets and somehow, through the magic of his acting, the whole of Auschwitz comes alive (a strange phrase for such an utterly dead place, but you know what I mean). You can almost feel the cold, the despair, the death, the hunger. This certainly does not make for easy viewing, least of all because Mr. Sher is often looking directly at you while delivering this horrible tale. Still this film, like the book, carries a very strong message: never again.

There was also a film made of Primo Levi's second book, The Truce, about his journey home to Italy. I was less impressed with that one but it may be worth watching after this, one to get a sense of the aftermath of the war for the survivors.

I Am Legend (2007)

Disappointment at the first zombie

[5/10 · 4 January 2008]

I haven't read the original novel or seen earlier film adaptations. I have only seen one other zombie-type film, which is 28 Days Later (which I liked). So I went into this with an open mind.

**SPOILERS** It started out fairly OK. Will Smith is not the best actor, but I could go along with him playing a brilliant warrior-chemist after only a minor suspension of disbelief. Next: Will clumsily hunting some CGI deer and lions (who let those out of their steel cages and how did they survive the cold?) that looked very unrealistic. Or cornfields that looked very neatly farmed. Or petrol that still seemed to work just fine. Or a bounty of electricity (though I later understood that he cleverly installed generators in his house).

And I'm not even at the zombie-part yet... I was ready to accept all these mistakes if the zombies or whatever they were would be good. But they weren't. They looked like something out of the pre-Lord of the Rings CGI era. Also they were supposed to be completely devoid of human intelligence and behavior, yet they managed to have a leader and trained zombiedogs? And if the virus made rats and dogs -and possibly other animals (yet not lions or deer)- go crazy, where were the packs of zombie-dogs or hordes of zombie-rats roaming the streets at night?? And why didn't Will-the-brilliant-scientist not wait a day or so longer to see if the cure had any effect on the woman? Still, that old lab in the basement of his family home came in very handy (...).

Also, the lady who completely unrealistically managed to survive for years with her young kid and also save Will at the very last minute from a horde of angry zombies. I had this nagging feeling she was trouble. Maybe a zombie-spy (btw I later read in a comment this was exactly what was in the original novel!)? A new variety of zombie that looked more human? She was so normal and calm, and the well-behaved kid did not look traumatized at all. And she didn't know Bob. It creeped me out. But no, she was just a nice lady with a nice kid sent by God (don't even get me started on the Compulsory Christan Theme!) to get the cure to Hobbiton (or wherever the rest of mankind was living). After Will cleverly decided that blowing himself and his precious research-lab with all the results up was a much better plan than escaping with them through that handy chimneyshaft-thingy (which was inside the zombiecage why?).... Really...

Waste of time and a huge missed opportunity for the writers/directors. The zombies would have looked much better if they had just used actors in make-up like in 28 Days Later (just rage and spitting blood, nothing more and they scared me big time!). So next time: maybe spend less money on lousy CGI and more on a decent writer!

o yes, and there's a cute dog. for obvious reasons.

Monsignor Renard (2000)

Great miniseries!

[10/10 · 26 December 2007]

When I strolled into the beautiful French village of St. Valerie-sur-Somme as a tourist and saw a group of Nazis chatting on a street corner, I unfortunately did not know that this wonderful miniseries was being filmed. After seeing it on TV a year or so later I was so disappointed that I didn't wait and maybe get a chance to see John Thaw act, or some of the others of the fine cast (I did have a little chat with a "Nazi" extra, who was very friendly, very English and very hot in his woollen uniform in the French summer heat).

Great story about ordinary people in an ordinary little town during extraordinary times. It paints a realistic picture of that period, one in which not all French people were active in the Resistance and not all Germans -or even German soldiers- were bad people. There are shades of good and bad in every character in the series, as is the case in real life. That's what I liked most about this series, as well as the convincing period feel of it. And how nice to hear Germans actually speak German to each other! The English actors trying to pronounce french words and names sounded a bit awkward at times, but the solid acting made up for that. John Thaws performance as Monsignor Renard was great (sadly, the world lost a great actor when he passed away), but the less well-known actors that made up most of the rest of the cast were good too. Sadly only 4 episodes were made, I would have liked to see more of the village and it's people and the way they would have coped with the continuing war (since it was only the very beginning of 1941 when the story ended).

5 out of 5!

Eragon (2006)

erm... why?

[1/10 · 24 December 2007]

I rented this movie knowing it would be mediocre. I'd seen the cheesy trailer, read some reviews and thought knew what I was in for. But man, this poor excuse for a fantasy movie was a LOT worse than I could ever imagine! SPOILERS (really? Don't we all know what's going to happen?)

In short: blond chubby yet poor starving farmboy Frodo (sorry, Aragorn...no, damn, Eragon!) finds The One Ring (erm... The One Egg), becomes friends with puppydog dragonbaby, receives a cool but painful scar (coughHarrypottercough) and then learns about his !!DESTINY!! from a wise ol' wizard named Gand... Brom (how's that for a cool name LOL). He sets out to fight The Dark Evil Naughty Lord of Darkness (named Galbawhateverix and coming in the disguise of half-sleeping John Malkovich) and his Evil Sidekick Wizard Sarum-... Durza (Dungza? No, Durza. Or: Robert Carlyle horribly overacting while trying to look menacing in a silly wig). Durza hasn't got a proper Nazgul but rides a cloud (??) with teeth, probably because the entire CGI-budget went to the dragon. Of course he is assisted by some home-grown Uruk-hai, a very uncool bunch of growling extra's named Urkles or something (I forgot, it was too ridiculous). Together the Dragon Rider/Ringbearer/Boy Who Lived and his wise wizard mentor (Mr. Irons, probably in serious need of money at the time) ride/fly out to fight Evil Lordy and...well, you know the drill. There's probably an epic battle at the end and Good overcomes Evil and Boy gets to kiss Girl (yes, there's a girl too), but I can't say I made it that far.

Oh yes, and there's a dragon with a high-pitched girly voice yet when she growls sounds very manly (Sean Connery, anyone?).

1.5 hours of my life that are never coming back. I could have watched LOTR again. Or do the dishes.

Flesh and Blood (2002 TV Movie)

Great little drama!

[10/10 · 5 April 2007]

I just love this film. It handles the delicate subject matter mental disability very carefully, but also without pulling any punches or being too politically correct about it. It's raw, tender and very realistic.

The parents of the main character Joe (wonderfully played - as always- by Christopher Eccleston) are not played by actors, but by real people with learning disabilities. This was obviously a very daring choice. It could have very easily turned out badly, but in this film it works beautifully. I never got any sense that these two people were being taken advantage off in any way.

great and genuine little film, 10 out of 10!

Recovery (2007 TV Movie)

amazing piece of drama

[9/10 · 5 March 2007]

I'm so glad I taped this film when it came on BBC last month! It blew my mind, so gut wrenching and real. David Tennant is absolutely fabulous in this, even though his character isn't always that easy to like or identify with. The final scene where he plays the song just broke my heart, those eyes....

I'm guessing that he made this film in between the Dr. Who series, and that makes it even more of an achievement for me. I just love Dr. Who and yet I saw absolutely nothing of him in Mr. Tennants portrayal of this man who knows that he has changed and struggles to create some sort of new identity and life.

great little intense drama!