r-hart77 Reviews

The New World (2005)

It's turkey time!

[25 July 2011]

I watched this on DVD this evening. I am not one to stop watching a movie once I start but this one I stopped halfway through, watched something else for awhile to wake myself up, then, for reasons only that I don't like to leave any movie partially watched, inflicted the rest of it on myself.

Critics have said it was beautifully filmed. Which part? We seemed to have interminable shots of grasslands with frolicking actors and treetop shots going around in circles. For a beautifully shot film try Kubricks masterpiece, Barry Lyndon.

While on the subject of Kubrick another critic mentioned the 'savages' reaction to the ships first arrival being compared to '2001, A Space Odyssey'. Those scenes were quite good but what happened as the movie progressed? The 'savages' reactions became duller and duller until they became almost non existent. (Duh, actor dressed as savage stands watching actor dressed as colonist, no reaction no nothing. dull dull dull) So much footage of actors doing nothing, staring at each other while we poor audience had to mind read (actually to help us out various thoughts were muttered during the movie. These were mostly gobbledygook anyway).

The director needs to learn how to use facial expressions to express emotion if he wants his actors to be silent. He should take some lessons on this from Sergio Leone (See the first 30 minutes of Once Upon a Time in the West).

The actors were so deadpan, particularly Pocahontas, that I thought they must have been subjected to an overdose of Botox.

I was mildly entertained by the inept fight scenes between the colonists and the savages. It looked like a bunch of clumsy extras trying to stage a fight scene. The result, a slapstick farce.

I should have watched this on network TV, the advertising would have broken up the tedium.

This was one of those movies that I won't remember much of by tomorrow.

A complete dead loss.

St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009)

An absolute joy

[18 July 2011]

It is wonderful to see British comedy such as this. To me this really hit the spot and was just what I needed to cheer myself up.

How can you go wrong with a cast such as this? Colin Firth, David Tennant and Rupert Everett all coming together with a cast of sensational young girls.

OK, the plot veers towards the ridiculous but what would you expect from this type of film? It is pure escapism performed to perfection.

I have been a fan of British comedy all my life and it is wonderful to know that the genre is still healthy and going strong.

Bring on St Trinians 3!

It would be wonderful at this time to see a revival of the old 'carry on' movies. Most of the cast of St Trinians would fit right in.

I watch movies to be entertained not necessarily educated. This movie certainly kept me entertained this evening.

Across the Universe (2007)

All you need is - Across the Universe

[10/10 · 16 November 2007]

I am an unabashed unashamed Beatles fan and have been since the early 60's. I am so wrapped in the Beatles that I hate it when other artists sing their songs (sacrilege) - until now! I went to see Across the Universe after seeing the preview. My expectations were more inquisitive than high.

After the first 10 seconds I was totally wrapped in this movie. The actors come singers were sensational. I particularly liked the way 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' was turned into a lament and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' became an anti-war song. Completely new meanings to well known songs.

These and other songs in the movie were incredible re-inventions of the songs I have known and loved for most of my life. I didn't think it would be possible to impress me in this way. Another stand out song is 'I Want You', changed from the original love song to 'Uncle Sam wants you' but ending up as a love song again.

I laughed out loud several times (when no one else in the cinema did) when I noticed movie events were reflecting actual Beatles movies or events. A good example was when Prudence was hiding in her room. Her character is named after Mia Farrows sister Prudence, who, when they were with the Beatles in India, hid in a room and wouldn't come out. This resulted in the writing of the song 'Dear Prudence' In the movie the song 'Dear Prudence' was sung to entice her from the room.

I got thinking later that, well, the Beatles have gone but their songs are still there. We can only listen to the Beatles themselves in so many ways (the last I heard was the too tricky Cirque de Soleil show 'Love'. To me this was a total failure, but that's another story). Surely then, it is now time to let these songs be re-invented. If done in such a fantastic way as with this movie then there are still further chapters to be written in the Beatles amazing story.

This review purposely avoids reviewing the actual movie but discusses the songs. The reader should read some of the earlier reviews for comment on the movie itself.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Much ado about nothing

[6/10 · 10 July 2007]

I just watched this on DVD and spent a lot of the time watching the DVD players time counter count out the 1hr 52mins this movie ran. The only thing that kept me watching was the excellent cinematography and dark atmosphere created by this film. This would have been better seen on the big screen, but for squeamish types the small screen is better.

Unfortunately that's all the 'ticks' I can give it.

This movie seemed to go nowhere. I was completely bored with the plot which advanced at a snails pace between a lot of completely unnecessary violence. My 20 year old daughter gave up on it due to the violence and left the room. There was absolutely no need for the graphic nature of this especially as it seemed to serve no purpose but to show the cruelty of the stepfather. This point was brought home to the viewers early in the film and did not need to be repeated over and over again.

Eventually the stepfather became a 'comic book' super villain, never smiling and, towards the end of the film becoming completely oblivious to what must have been incapacitating, extraordinarily painful injuries. This gave me the only laugh in what was a totally depressing film as these scenes of the stepfather at the end of the film were completely unbelievable and ridiculous.

The 'pale man' could have been an interesting character. The idea was great, make-up excellent but why wasn't he used more? Just as the scenes with him were becoming interesting he was gone, out of the film, not to be seen again. This was far too shallow.

The character of the housekeeper was stupid too. She gave herself away on many occasions but the stepfather never seemed to notice. I mean, anybody else who stepped out of line, just slightly, copped it big time as we so often saw throughout the film.

The young girl showed almost no emotion during the film. Where was her fear when confronted by the giant toad or the faun, or even the 'pale man'? (Aside - laughed out loud at the carefully daubed on mud during the toad scenes.)

To summarise, this was beautifully filmed but with an almost non-existent plot, stupid, unrealistic characters and wooden acting.