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simonrheath
Reviews
Eastern Promises (2007)
Ho-Hum Movie which Viggo Carried
I just attended the world premier of Eastern Promises at the Toronto Film Festival. It showed at Roy Thomson Hall which is an excellent venue and all the stars were there. Kronenberg gave an excellent speech at the beginning and cracked, "I only came to make sure all of you attended".
Now I don't want to give anything away in this movie but there are a lot of parallels to Kronenberg's last effort - a History of Violence. But then again, all of Kronenberg's movies have some extreme violence and gore that traces back to his sci-fi/horror origins. Now I had some trouble buying into the initial premise of the movie (i.e. the death of one prostitute in London England could trigger an expose on the Russian mob) but there was one saving grace throughout the movie - the killer acting of Viggo Mortensen - this guy stole the show and made the movie. The movie is highlighted by an intense fight scene between Mortensen and two thugs that is one of the best fights I've seen in any movie.
Now it was novel to do a movie on the Russian Mafia and its raquets like prostitution. It was also interesting to see the social structure of the mob and the story told by the tattoos on its foot soldiers. However, it was hard to buy into all of the parts of the movie and it didn't hold that well together - and Naiomi Watts performance was forgettable.
I will have to see this movie a few more times to be sure but Kronenberg got it right the first time - History of Violence was much better. However, Mortensen's performance requires everyone to watch this film.
The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Dumbed Down Simpsons (Simpsons Sell Out More than Usual)
After months and months of anticipation for this movie it was all zapped minutes in. While there were references to old episodes, the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon was one of the best and Spider Pig was amusing this movie was boring and did not do justice to true Simpsons fans who have become accostomed to witty, quick jokes.
The movie explored themes that are way, way, way, way to overdone in the show: Bart and Homer's father/son relationship; Marge and Homer's marital relationship; the Simpsons relationship to Springfield.
The writers are used to putting in a lot of social commentary in a 22 minute episode. With over 80 minutes for the MOVIE I am at a loss for why this was not possible. Rather they rely on too much slapstick and fail to dip into the well of already well established characters.
For shame Simpsons, for shame.
Przygody misia Colargola (1968)
Jeremy Kicked Ass
As others have mentioned the "Adventures of Jeremy the Bear" appeared on TV-Ontario from the mid-1970s through to the mid-1980s. The show chronicled approximately 60, 15 minutes adventures of Jeremy. As a child with no cable TV-O was one of only 3 channels my family got and I spent considerable time watching Jeremy who aired 3 or 4 times a day at times.
The show as I later discovered was made in Poland - it combined stop animation and real animation and cost $50,000 an episode in 1970 currency. When Corigol came to Canada he was renamed Jeremy - however, in England he was named Barnaby and given an adult's voice.
From what I gather there is a massive legal dispute between the producer and distributer of the show which is preventing it from been re-aired or packaged in a box set (although you can get the first 8 episodes on e-bay). However, if your polish is good enough you can allegedly buy all of the episodes in Poland.
My favourite episodes, and I'm going from memory now because its impossible to see the episodes, is when Jeremy flies to the Moon and when Jeremey and Raven 12 travel through a dozen or so countries in search of their lost friend the mouse.
As the other comment suggests the show was also a real tear jerker. In one early episode Jeremey tires of the circus he joined and decsides its time to go back home to his parents. Along the way he takes a nap in a busshel of hey. He is then discovered by the Ring Master and locked in a cage so he would not run away. The next episodes show how the town hears of Jeremy forced confinement and the town works as a team to get his freedom. Very heartwrenching indeed.
Paper Moon (1973)
Got to love Hobo-esq 1930's style movies
I wasn't born yet, but didn't the Sting come out in 1973 as well? Was the USA, as my clever title suggests, in love with Hobo-Esq inspired 1930s movies in the early 70s - those that highlighted grifting? Given the success of the both movies at the 1974 Oscars you would have to say yes (further, check out the Simpsons parody of grifting if you like the theme of these movies).
Now Tatum O'Neil was great as Addie and her pa Jeff O'Neil did a great job a Mose. I loved Addies smoking and Mose's blindness to Trixie's obvious usury.
However, I found the relationship between Addie and Mose a little more disturbing than most - perhaps this was the point of the movie. At times it really was more than fondness or kinship - Addie loved Mose - in a romantic way, or what she thought was romantic (which brought it out of the realm of disturbing). Given the fact that Mose could have been her Pa in real life, this had added a disturbing element to the movie. However, the movie needed the dark to balance the humour.
Nevertheless, this movie was very easy to watch with great cinematography. Further, I loved how Addie wanted to help out FDR and redistribute here wealth - truly a child ahead of her times.
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Cool Critique of Big Business and Drug Addiction
Its been several months since I saw this movie in the theatre but I still often think about it - in my opinion the hallmark of a great movie.
The first theme shows how any drug, in this case, "D", can bring a functioning member of society into an antisocial animal. We watch Arctor's dual personality of cop and addict and learn how is life went from 1950s suburban dream (nice house, wife, kids) to dark chaos (slums with other addicts - those on D and those on cocaine and booze). He struggles with human feelings which surface only to be lost in drug addiction. When he does in fact lose his mind, the movie is surreal - which is helped by the awesome animation. The viewer feels the loss of control and the loss of sanity.
Now the second theme of big business creating Agent D - distributing it - then opening up the rehab clinics and using brain dead addicts to farm the base plant of agent D is circular genius. Then have the addict cop fall prey to an elaborate scheme to figure out the true supplier of D. The most obvious parallel would be Big Tobacco. However, would a really more destructive drug be beyond the brains of Corporate America? Are we as the most over-medicated society in the world already there? The banter/dialogue was fantastic and this movie was visually breathtaking. If you like PKD's Books, must see this movie.
Munich (2005)
Louis and Papa are the only heroes in this Spielberg Tragedy
I just sat through all three hours of Munich (Please could someone have edited this movie's running time? - particularly the final sex scene that climaxes with Avner pounding his wife while visualizing the murder of the Israli Olympic team). The story had great potential to explore the tensions between Arab/Palestinian countries and Israel and engage viewers minds on modern day terrorism by drawing parallels to the aftermath of the Munich massacre. However, as discussed, poor editing, an unrealized story and poor casting, particularly Bana as Avner, leaves much of Spielberg's ideas unrealized (in contrast, Jar Heads made me think much more about lots of issues than this movie which had an easier subject matter to challenge the viewer on).
Here are a few of the drawbacks of the movie: 1. Two hours into the movie Avner and his posse have only killed three of the eleven terrorists on their list. I leaned over to my buddy and said My Lord, there are eight more killings to go - when will this movie end?.
2. Avner's prophetic downward spiral into paranoia highlighted by storming the Israeli consulate in New York City and sleeping in the closet - not only was it awful, Bana's poor acting stripped it of all credibility.
3. The Australian/South African kick asser Israeli crack teammate - this guy was cool, but cast completely wrong for the movie - he seemed more Lethal Weapon than Munich.
4. As already discussed, the final sex scene where Avner sweats up a storm and does his stuff while visualizing the final seconds of the Munich massacre.
Now don't get me wrong, this movie was not all bad. Geoffry Rush was excellent as Ephraim. However, the movie was stolen by Louis and his beloved Papa and their family business that provides global intelligence at a price but not to any government and complete infiltration into the world of international espionage. While it made completely no sense for Avner, who had just lied to Louis about not working for a government and then traveled to Lebannon and blown away dozens of soldiers on a hit-run on the basis of Louis' information to then voluntarily attend Papa's house, this was the highlight of the movie. Papa's admiration of Avner's loyalty to his own papa and need to provide for his family were great because of their simplicity and universality. Further, the dialog between the family members particularly at the dinner table over grace was dynamite.
However good Papa and Louis were, unfortunately, their performance was overshadowed by a very forgettable movie.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
With such a great story, how could you miss
This is one of the best war novels ever written - by Erich Maria Remarque, a German soldier after the war and from the German perspective. If you look closely, other movies such as Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Jarhead etc. all borrow from the theme that was first fully developed in this movie - a generation transformed by and then lost from war. The book provides vivid details of teenagers transformed into solid soldiers from basic crule basic training at the hands of a sadistic drill seargent to hand-to-hand combat on the front line to an inability to relate to the society they defend.
Unfortunately, the made-for-TV movie fails to exploit the source material of the book (most likely as a result of a low budget). While the scenes at basic training are done well enough, the movie does not do justice to the horror that was present on the Western front - in terms of loss of friends and the futility of the war and the schisms between the soldiers in the true meaning behind the cause of the war (pacifists vs. war mongers). In fact, the scene where Paul kills the French soldier in the trench falls short in terms of depicting the raw, human emotion and the philosophical questions of whether its better to have war or peace that are clearly articulated in the novel.
While movies often do more justice than their source material, this movie missed the mark. If you haven't done so already, read the book.
The Village (2004)
Let this be the Movie "They Shall Never Speak Of"
The Irony: Escape from a society based on fear only to create a society that is based on fear. Who would have known? Who cares - really, for a movie based on symbolism, there is no message.
Things I could not stand about this movie: (1) the dialogue - the confused Pilgrim English quickly began to grind on my nerves; (2) Adrian Brody - as it has been said by others, he should return his Oskar for his performance in the Village; (3) the reason for establishing the village was noble enough - however, using fear to control the young, while the old had attempted to escape fear in their past lives was ridiculouse; (4) sending the blind daughter to get the medicine instead of sending one of the elders who could have easily done it without giving the secret away was pointless; and (5) finally, when the twist is given away (i.e., the brother had purchased a get away for the hippies), it was a letdown - not because it was predictable, but because the movie garnered no compassion or empathy for the cause.
The Skeleton Key (2005)
Its not Voodoo, its Hoodoo
This movie is not about voodoo, its hoodoo. Hoodoo, what that you ask? Well, its not spiritual, its magic and you have to believe in Hoodoo. In fact, you can go to your local Laundromat and buy spells and ingredients for the purposes of Hoodoo. Well, I wish someone had spilled some red sand in front of the movie theater so I wouldn't have walked in, then I too would believe in hoodoo.
The terrible thing about this movie is that the Sixth Sense has spawned so much tripe from Hollywood in attempts to reproduce a movie with a great twist ending (including the worst movie ever, the Village). Unfortunately, the Skeleton key does not meet this standard.
The one good part of this movie is Kate Hudson shows some real potential. However, a poorly written plot on a silly subject overshadow her performance.
Norma Rae (1979)
Very Good Historical Time Capsule
Let me begin by informing you that I am a management labor lawyer and my practice is to thwart union organizing drives.
Let me continue by saying that Norma Rae is an excellent snapshot at what all union's faced in the mid-1970s in attempting to organize textile mills in the Baptist South (the story is fictional but based on an amalgamation of union drives and a union heroine). Further, Liebman's character Reuben Warshawky the union organizer was excellent because he acted as a protagonist for Norma Rae to react to and blossom as a woman, mother, worker and leader in a manner that it quite ahead of its times.
I had two favorite scenes in the movie. The first is where Norma asks the Church Minister if she can hold a union meeting at the local church with both white/black workers to see whether the Church believed in social justice. My second favorite is when Warshawky stands up for Norma when her morality (i.e., the fact she had an illegitimate child, dated many men and made a porno movie) is challenged by non-union supporters and by the executive of the textile union.
Unfortunately for Norma Rae and the American Textile industry, unionized industries are rapidly disappearing to cheaper off-shore markets such as China. However, Norma Rea will always retain its place in American trade union history as a fictional (although doc style movie) on unions in the deep south.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
What a Joke
There was nothing interesting about this movie except for the president and vice-president characters who had a striking resemblance to Bush and Cheney and the fact that the president is made to look like a virtuous hero and the vice-president is a lap-dog to big business. In either way, it was a lame attempt by the prodcuers to bolster support for the current administration.
The funniest part of this movie was the fact that 20th Century Fox shows "Fox News", the most right-wing media company in the U.S.A., reporting on global warming and then sending out a left-wing message that people should be careful with respect to the environment to avoid such a catastrophe. This contradiction is indicative of one of the silliest and most contrived disaster movies ever made.
Not only did I lose 2 hours of my life watching this movie, I am a little bit stupider for it.
Manhunter (1986)
Good Use of Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Manhunter is fantastic - it is far superior to its re-make Red Dragon(which raises the question, why re-make a classic in the first place).
I think Mann uses music perfectly in this movie. In the final scene Mann uses Iron Butterfly's " In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". Not only is the song rough and jagged which was perfect for Dolarhyde's preperations for his next victim, Mann sets up the music to climax once Will sees Dolarhyde preparing to murder his victim. The music climaxes as Will runs through the forest and bursts through the large window with sharp piercing electric guitar blaring as shards of glass fly everywhere. Mann achieves a perfect combination of audio and visual effects. The song is perfect for the final showdown between the hero and the villain.
As a final aside, Iron Butterfly's album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is a good listen for the 17 minute version of the title track - this California band also plays some shorter rock/pop tunes.
Blade Runner (1982)
Dick's book more intriguing then movie which is really good
I am a long time fan of Blade Runner. As a result of my fascination with the movie, and in order to find out if Rick Deckard was really an android, I decided to go to the source material - Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
The book was more complex then the movie. While the movie addresses several of the themes of the book, it does not, in my opinion address the distinguishing feature between humans and androids: empathy (which in the movie and book can be tested by the Voigt/Kampff scale used by bounty hunters).
In the novel, Dick creates a religion called Mercerism which is based on humans collectively sharing their empathy. Only by understanding the concept of Mercerism can the reader begin to understand the real differences between humans and androids. Mercerism provides an analytical framework which the reader can use to classify similarities and differences. However, once the reader thinks she understands the similarities and differences, they are turned up-side down and rearranged. The focus remains constant throughout: what does it mean to be human?
I wish that Scott had incorporated the concept of Mercerism into the movie because it would have given the movie direction on the issue of what it means to be human.