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Reviews
Apocalypse la 1ère Guerre mondiale (2014)
NOT a documentary
First of all the good things.
1) Narrator is good, both in English and in French (which, I think is his native).
2) Surely, worked a lot with the archives. I have seen some footage which I had seen nowhere else.
Now what breaks it :
This is not a documentary. It's a French propaganda film. The makers of this video series have made no effort to be impartial. For example in episode 2, when they mentioned the African troops, they blamed Germany for uprooting Africans for their imperial war purposes (when all Germany had in Africa was not much more than a "sausage factory in Tanganyika"). But they "uprooted Africans to fight for the war of their barbaric agression". And the French colonial troops? (France conscripted hundreds of thousands of Africans). They were there voluntarily because of respect for the uniform and good salaries. (!) (if you buy that)
Also, in line with the official French view, not only there was much talk of an Armenian Genocide (in exaggeration of even the Armenian claims), and of course, no mention of massacres by Armenian bands on Turkish villages, of course.
Overall, I think, for the sake of inserting French political opinion on history, this video has missed the chance of being a very good documentary.
The Naked Mile (2006)
This film is for nobody
This is a film featuring 20-something actors and actresses of mediocre talent, playing girls and boys of age 16-17 with IQs of primary school students (both in terms of the jokes and pranks they make, and in terms of their general raison d'etre)
In that sense, this movie addresses only to early teenagers, but it has full-frontal nudity so I don't see it in getting any kind of 13+ rating in any country.
American Pie was kind of funny, but these should stop already.
Nefes: Vatan Sagolsun (2009)
Soldiers' view of a short episode, of a long-time raging war
I was appalled by the high standard deviation in the ratings for this film. Funny how many different sides rate a film according to their political views.
The film is not political at all. It is purely the war from the viewpoint of Turkish soldiers, but the message is universal and I firmly believe a soldier from any army of the world would easily appreciate the film, and see something from his own experience.
That said, the film also well depicts the Turkish army in a micro scale; with its flounders (hand grenade), abuses (torturing PKK fighter), fierceness (the successful ambush), and heroism and selflessness, as well as the somewhat tragi-comic side of the daily lives of soldiers, that is present in every barrack, I presume. This is all given in great cinematography from the mountains south-east Turkey (one Turkish general called the area as being "so rugged that, if it would have been possible to iron that small region, another Turkey-sized flat country would emerge").
Contrary to what has been said, the soldiers are neither glorified, nor booed. So, the film is pretty neutral in that sense.
Special mention has to be made about the end of the film. With all the technical difficulties, the director managed to pull the end-scene very nicely without much resorting to use of computer graphics.
This is one of the best war movies I have ever seen.
Dirty Money: Hard Nox (2018)
Bad documentary making in action
This entire documentary about Volkswagen is full of cheap shots. If you wanna criticize emissions, criticize the emissions, what has Hitler connection, or the fact that Piech had 12 kids have to do with emissions?
He takes up one point, that the VW cheated in emissions testing, and then tries to depict the company pure evil using Hitler connections and even private life of its CEOs. I have 1 question to ask to the narrator.. If the company was so bad even without the emissions scandal, then why did you buy the freaking car, and boasted with it? Are you Nazi? Are you philogynic?
I think neither. I think you're just biased, and a bad documentary maker who makes only cheap shots.
Swiss Army Man (2016)
pure crap
Sometimes the filmmakers screw up the script so bad that it becomes impossible to connect it to something meaningful at the end. The TV series Lost is a prime example. For Lost, it was obvious after the 3rd season that it wasn't going to end in any sensible way. This film, however, gave me the sense that with some tweak at the end, it would be worth watching. I was wrong. The ending is worse than the film itself.
PS : Those who gave 10-stars are the kind of people who would see an accidental vomit on a canvas, and just because it is on a canvas, would call it "modern art" and start adoring it.
PPS : The soft soundtrack is nice though.