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Reviews
Man on a Ledge (2012)
Simlpy Lazy..
I've had it up to my eyeballs with script that are simply too lethargic. movies that take your money whose producers are just winging it. it certainly had promise at the start but becomes predictable way before the middle and come on!, the last scene where he hurdles himself over to another building and jumps over it's edge to land neatly on the inflatable, and confronts his nemesis, landing one blow and get the hidden diamond form the mans jacket thereby acquitting him of the crime then and there when a reporter interviews him (not 10 seconds past when he got the diamond) "Now that your proved innocent.." WTF! the problem with that scenario is there are a lot of what-if's, a lot of things is left hanging (he could not have landed on the mat and the diamond he was brandishing about could have been faux) and you could just sense the producers hurrying everything up just to save some money on production and knowing we'll be reeled in by the premise anyhows but will still get shortchanged. Will stick to non-Hollywood films from now on..
The Hunger Games (2012)
Another Rip-Off from an Asian film
Have just been browsing thru reviews for Battle Royalle and i chance upon this review and Yes, Hollywood did make a watered down version, lame.
"A film (Battle Royalle) that the US, would never, could never make...", 15 September 2001
Author: Henry Postan from London, England This film is film that I believed had to be made, and it was only a matter of time before it was. Yet it was a film that the US mainstream could never have conceived making.
Firstly to get it out of the way I will say that I loved this movie, although at no point did I feel comfortable while watching it. It had the power and emotional content, that while not necessarily apparent in the dialogue was visible on screen at all times.
I am truly glad that this film has come out of mainstream Japanese cinema. It would have only been made in the US by independent film- makers who would have basked in the glory of its controversy and felt oh-so-smug that they had created it, while shoving a moral in your face. While I actually have no problem with US Indie film I do feel that a Western background would have comprised on visceral content, and upped the content of cheap moral points.
For those who say the violence was "cartoon-style" and laughable must have been watching a different film. Whilst this film is heavy in black humour I can clearly say that the deaths are shocking in the extreme, and there is no relenting from the beginning to the end. Only occasionally does the camera pan away from the final deed. The only deaths that have a dark humour content to them, are those involving Kitano (Beat Takeshi) and the "lone" vigilante (those who have seen the film will know what I am talking about). Other sections, such as the "Training Video" are equally comedic, and absurd. Yet other deaths are shocking in the extreme, and show how the slightest suspicion can have disastrous consequences for groups that only have trust to keep them together, a truly shocking scene in the Lighthouse reinforces this.
The fact that this film employs Children as the main protagonists of the story is the key to the whole impact of the film. We have all seen films like The Running Man where adults fight adults for survival and it seems that much less shocking, albeit that film was handled in a completely different manner. Children have the innocence that makes the brutality of this film that much more shocking, adults in the same situation would have had the reaction from audiences of cheering at the screen as the hero dispatches yet another victim. This could never and would never have been the case with this film.
To another commentator who felt that this film sticks with you less than Scream, I simply fail to find this to be anywhere close to the truth. The deaths in Scream although bloody are nothing but pastiche of those films that Scream is mimicking, ultimately throwaway deaths that up in brutality in order to out-do the last one that have one or two psychotic perpetrators, who eventually get their comeuppance. In this film their are no victims and besides one exception there are no villains amongst the children. They simply HAVE to play the game or die.
Well I encourage all those who feel they can stomach it to go and see this film or find it available somewhere (as I believe it has been banned in the US). It is not truly a film denouncing the evils of Reality TV or showing us the future of that trend of Broadcasting, that is merely a plot device to place the children in this situation. The nature of the film lies in its deconstruction of Friendships, Trust and our views on Innocence. Go and see it not as a spectator of this BR spectacle but as one of the participants and remember what was important to you when you were at school, and whether any of those rivalries, hatreds and friendships would have been enough for you to decide who deserves to die and who deserves to live.
Puncture (2011)
Waste of PRECIOUS TIME!
Superfluous acting by Evans. You may or may not be entertained by his idiotic and excessive drug use which is heavily panned out. I mean, OK we get it, hes a junkie, get on with the story... and bam! you get a lukewarm ending to an uninspired plot. Some of the reviews here are unreliable and shady which made me watch it in the first place!
Doesn't come close to the entertainment value of Erin Brockovich. A total waste of time..
Synopsis: A David and Goliath law drama about a drug-addicted lawyer who takes on a health supply corporation while battling his own personal demons.
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
More intelligent than you would expect
I've been holding out on watching this movie simply because i thought it was clichéd. And I've had my fill of Hollywood making such abysmal movies these days (or is it for years) that I've been sticking to watching European and Korean films, they've got much more grit. But this Hollywood installment is actually very good and a thought provoking ending makes it that much better.
Production: In early drafts, the character Norris was changed from a real estate salesman, as in the short story, to an up-and-coming politician.[9] Media Rights Capital funded the film and then auctioned it to distributors, with Universal Studios putting in the winning bid for $62 million.[4][10] Variety reported Damon's involvement on February 24, 2009,[3] and Blunt's on July 14, 2009.[4] The film was released on March 4, 2011.[11] Nolfi worked with John Toll as his cinematographer. Shots were planned in advance with storyboards but changed often during shooting to fit the conditions of the day. The visual plan for the film was to keep the camera-work smooth using a dolly or crane and have controlled formal shots when the Adjustment Bureau was in full control, with things becoming more loose and using hand-held cameras when the story becomes less controlled.[12] The final scene (on the rooftop of the GE Building in Rockefeller Center ("Top of the Rock") was filmed four months after the rest of the film had completed shooting and has a different ending than the original.
Man vs. Wild (2006)
Hardcore Surviving... In Hotel rooms..
In the first few seasons, the producers (and Bear) failed to tell you that this is just a "how to guide" but lets you assume that it is "unaided solo survival". But when we found out that Mr Grylls was actually roughing it out in hotel rooms with jacuzi and internet access, the network then promises to be more "transparent" in its future episodes. What a disappointment. And it (failing to be transparent) actually worked in reeling in a massive base audience in the first place. Bravo to the producers. And an 8+ rating as of this review? really? I give it a 1 for its initial deceit and assuming most audiences are retards.
Here's a report from Australia where he supposedly ate a snake he killed when it was actually road kill!? Yep, he ate double dead meat. Probably had to puke it out right after camera roll.
HE'S known around the world as Bear, but the TV survivalist has been seriously grilled by an Aussie guide who reckons he wasn't all that tough when it came to the rugged Kimberley outback. Staying Alive Survival Services director Nick Vroomans was hired by the Man vs Wild crew in 2007 to act as Bear Grylls' behind-the-scenes guide during an episode shot in Western Australia, the Herald Sun reported.
Vroomans, based in Laidley, just outside of Brisbane, told mX the show was "entirely scripted''.
"He's not a survival expert, he's an adventure actor,'' said Vroomans, who set up his own Outback survival company in 1997.
"Everything you see in the show is set up I built him shelters and found him snakes to .. eat it's all for show.''
Grylls will be in Melbourne tomorrow for Bear Grylls Live.
A spokeswoman for Man vs. Wild's UK-based production company, Diverse Television, said compliance issues in the early series had been raised before.
"Bear does do all his own stunts and does put himself in extremely perilous situations, however the series is not an observational documentary but a how-to guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments,'' she said.
Vroomans said he didn't hold anything against Grylls, 37.
"Bear is a nice guy, he's a good person and he generally contacts me when he comes to Australia,'' he said.
"He may not be a survival expert but if he gets people interested in finding out more, that can only be a good thing.
"I've got nothing against Bear or the producers.
"What he does isn't survival but it's definitely entertaining,'' said Vroomans, who learned his trade at the Australian Defence Force combat survival school.
"On the show broadcast to Europe and the US, you see him catch a snake, kill it, and eat it.
"But it was actually two snakes a roadkill that I found which he (was shown beating) on the head and eating, and then a live olive python that a wildlife carer had been rehabilitating.
"Bear decided he wanted to swim across a river with the snake, but he kept dropping it and losing it. I had to keep catching the thing and giving it back to him.''
While the episode showed Grylls perilously close to saltwater crocodiles, Vroomans said Bear, a former UK Special Forces commando, wouldn't go near them.
"The whole crew was petrified of the crocodiles,'' he said.
"Bear didn't want to get anywhere near the water, so we filmed a set up of him (like) he was near a crocodile when he was actually a safe distance away.
"I was a bit miffed when I saw the finished show.''
Diverse Television said the "program explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls's experience is one of unaided solo survival''.
Sherlock (2010)
It is what its meant to be. A great remake of an old classic with a modern twist.
Brilliant because its unpredictable and with a great score, nothing could go wrong. Although I haven't seen the movie remake, I guarantee you this TV version is way better. It caters to your every whim.. and then some. You will love it!
In this modernized version of the Conan Doyle characters, using his detective plots, Sherlock Holmes lives in early 21st century London and acts more cocky towards Scotland Yard's detective inspector Lestrade because he's actually less confident.
Doctor Watson is now a fairly young veteran of the Afghan war, less adoring and more active.
Incendies (2010)
Will leave you devastated..
I've worked in the middle east and it was kinda fun watching the scenery unfold and you'd know exactly why the actors have to be in long enveloping shirts despite the heat. what got me thou was the plot. it just grips you from the opening scene and will leave you feeling miserable for what happened to all the main characters ...even the antagonist. i highly recommend you watch this and don't read the synopsis below coz its a spoiler..
Synopsis:After their mother suffers from a stroke at a community swimming pool, twin brother and sister receive final requests in their immigrant mother's will. To fulfill these wishes, they must journey to her birth land in an unnamed Middle-Eastern country (based on Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war[3][4][5]). The movie contains a series of flashbacks to the mother's life (Nawal Marwan). Nawal, a Middle-Eastern Christian gets pregnant from a refugee (likely a Palestine refugee in Lebanon). Nawal's infuriated brothers kill her lover as they try to escape. She reveals to her grandmother that she is pregnant. They keep the pregnancy secret in order to save face. Upon the baby's birth, the grandmother tattoos the infant's heel, and they give the baby boy away. Nawal follows her promise to her grandmother to study in Daresh (a fictional city) during which a Civil War breaks out. Under threat of war, Nawal returns to find her lost son. War has preceded her arrival as she discovers her son's orphanage has been destroyed. She then pretends to be a Muslim to board a bus with other Muslims fleeing to get to the camp where her son has been moved to. On the way to the camp her bus is attacked by armed Christians. She and a Muslim woman and her daughter survive, only to have the bus covered in gas to be burnt. Nawal escapes by showing her cross. They would not spare the woman, so Nawal claims the other woman's daughter as her own. However, the daughter runs back to the bus and is shot. Disillusioned, Nawal joins a radical organization. She is planted as a French tutor for a prominent Christian leader and assassinates him. She is sent to prison, where she becomes known as the woman who sings. Before her release after 13 years in prison, she is raped by the torturer Abu Tareq. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to twins in the jail. A nurse secretly saves the babies and returns them to Nawal after her release. They emigrate to Canada. After her death many years later, Nawal leaves a will requesting that her children, Simon and Jeanne, find their father and lost brother. Simon refuses, but Jeanne continues on her own, following in her mother's footsteps. She finds her extended family, who refuse to speak to her because of the shame her mother brought on the family. She then finds the prison and learns from a former employee that her mother was raped and gave birth in prison. He gives her the name of the nurse who birthed the babies. Distraught, she calls Simon to join her. He arrives with their mother's former employer from Canada. They find the nurse and ask for the baby born in prison. Only when the nurse reports that their mother gave birth to twins, do Jeanne and Simon become aware that they have been searching for themselves the whole time. A local solicitor identifies the name of their lost half-brother as Nihad. He further manages to trace the warlord who seized the new orphanage where Nihad had lived following the destruction of the first, and arranges for a meeting. Simon learns that Nihad had been taken in by the warlord, turned into a soldier, and eventually became a torturer at the prison where their mother was held. He was then known as Abu Tareq. Having discovered that their father is their half-brother, they find out that he too had moved to Canada. They find him, and deliver the letters from the mother. We learn that after many years, while swimming in a pool, Nawal spots a man with a tattooed heel. Meeting her rapist and lost son again after so much time, she suffers from a stroke and dies shortly after. At the end, her son visits her grave after he learns what he had done to his own mother.
From the names (Christian) and the fact that Nawal's lover is "from the camps", the Marwan family are likely Christian Lebanese (further, Maronite, since Nawal's uncle's name is "Charbel"), while her lover is Palestinian. However, Nawal's accent, as well as her family's and most of the actors, is not Lebanese.
Wasted on the Young (2010)
Intelligent and thought provoking....
not your typical slash and burn revenge movie. although the ending leaves the viewer hanging (how dearly we want to see the villains squirm some more), it wouldn't have been as effective. prevalent in any society are bullies and the people who let them get away with it. what the movie aims to impart is that we can do something about it. I could understand why the female protagonist felt so helpless, its because of the fact that society will tend to put the blame on her for putting herself in that position in the first place. and she knew that. i've read most victims of rape will not report it to the police for fear that no one will believe them. suffice it to say that i like how it turned out in the end. even if it took me a few minutes to do so:) we see the male protagonist leaving it up to general consensus on who will be shot dead, him or hes step-brother. and i guess humanity didn't loose its innate sense of justice and choose well..