lucad_99 Reviews

Better Call Saul: Saul Gone (2022) Season 6, Episode 13

Perfect

[10/10 · 16 August 2022]

I had no idea what was coming, but one last slip and we landed on the perfect ending. I also want to thank everyone in the cast, the writers and the directors for making this so fantastic. It was a wild ride.

Alientologists (2017)

just wow

[10/10 · 9 December 2018]

It has chills, it has thrills, it's heartwarming, a tearjerker, and it's a musical! What more can you ask for. This film is so clever and so surprising, and the acting is stellar. Clever bits throughout, including using a song called "After You're Gone." I've watched it twice so far, and it doesn't disappoint. The alien language was also very clever! Wow, thank you so much DUST for sending us such good work.

The Wandering Jew (I) (1933)

I give this rating for one reason alone

[10/10 · 7 January 2018]

I don't know if it's just the age of the film, but the quality of the dvd I was terrible. The costumes throughout are good, but the direction is also pretty bad. The narrator is awful. The rest of the actors are really pretty dreadful, except Peggy Ashcroft. The script is dull at times, and rushed at others. It often feels like there is no point to it. The baddies are very bad and cliched, and none of the characters have much motivation to do what they do. (although I definitely disagree with another reviewer that this is a pro-Christian film since the Christians are quite nasty.. but I digress.) So overall, this film is really not well made, but it was the beginning of the sound era, so many of the problems come from this. There is one amazing reason to see this absolutely dreadful film, however. One shining gem in all the dullness. That is the performances of Conrad Veidt. He has many surprising and charming "bits" in this film, (like when he looks at the invisible audience and asks them to keep quiet) and even though he is playing the same man, he seems to be different throughout the ages. Because everything else is so bad, he shines all the more, past the bad sound quality and past the bad film quality. In the last scene he was so fantastic, fantastic, fantastic, I forgot that I was watching this bad quality film and wept for him. So if you have patience and are a fan of really stellar acting, watch it. Conrad Veidt gives the film a ten.

The Circle (I) (2017)

not about Facebook

[17 December 2017]

I realize a lot of people think this movie is about Social Media, but I realized quite soon that it is about Scientology.. Many of the techniques that Scientology uses, such as finding out about your personality from the get go (so they can use it later, especially if you turn against them), filming people they view as enemies, big rallies and constant filming is shown in this film. If you see it in this angle, it changes so much.

Two Brothers (1926)

Film shines though sad print

[9/10 · 17 December 2017]

It's true the existing print of this film is poor, but this film deserves a restoration. It clearly has fantastic acting by some of the best actors of the day and has very interesting camera angles which I haven't seen in a film of this period before. A good clean up would let us see it to its advantage. It's not fair to judge it by today's standards, but at the same time, I see a lot in it that makes it special. Come on, someone, give us a restoration on DVD. I would pay for it to see the acting alone. It shined through the blur. As for the plot, sure it's good versus evil, but so are most movies today. I hope for the future.

The Student of Prague (1926)

Something about this film

[10/10 · 18 November 2017]

I have watched a lot of silent films in my life (love the genre) and I must say in a lot of ways this film blew me away more than most. I love Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu and Metropolis, but this film snuck up on me in a way I didn't expect that none of those films did. It was scary. Scarier than Nosferatu. I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. It's also beautiful. Some scenes, like Werner Krauss on the Mountaintop, are riveting. It starts out almost as a joke with the tombstone, but that tombstone later becomes a slap in the face. Conrad Veidt is always good, but here he is so painfully and chillingly aware of his huge mistake every time he looks in the mirror and it shows so well. He seems to find one thing in each movie that will make him unforgettable. I wanted to rewind the student's life as the horror set in. I am sure this movie influenced many film noir directors with the cinematography. I could see the future of film here and I will definitely watch it again.

Inspector Morse: The Settling of the Sun (1988) Season 2, Episode 3

Lots of problems with this episode (slight spoiler)

[5/10 · 18 April 2014]

I like inspector Morse a lot, but this episode does not work in so many ways. First of all, Yukio Li is not a Japanese name. I kept waiting for them to say, "He's not really Japanese, and his name is really Yu Kio Li from Hong Kong." Yukio is a Japanese name, but a FIRST name, so when they say Li is his "Christian" name it becomes even more ridiculous. The man playing the role IS Japanese, so why not ask him? Then the woman who is supposed to be an expert on Japan, the Bursar, the words she SAYS in Japanese make no sense in the context. Most importantly, surely, despite World War 2, people would care a little about a complete stranger dying and being mutilated despite committing no crime, especially since he has nothing to do with World War 2, not even having been born during that time? The jokes made about the body were in exceptionally poor taste, and the whole episode felt quite racist. Anyway, better skip this one. The plot makes little sense, and a lot of it is just plain annoying.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: None Are So Blind (1956) Season 2, Episode 5

deserves a better review

[9/10 · 15 October 2010]

I see that there is only one review of this episode and I feel it deserves better than what it has received. The whole point of Alfred Hitchcock Presents is to create, in half an hour, an interesting character or two and to present the audience with a little twist that they can think about for the rest of the day with satisfaction. It is especially good if the audience has no idea what the twist is going to be, but with little hints along the way to make us realize afterwards that we should have guessed. And the title is always a clue in itself.

Hurd Hatfield is a very good actor, and he was famous for his day because of Dorian Grey. He once said that Dorian Grey was both the best and worst thing that had ever happened to him. He is excellent in the role... perfect in fact, which is why the twist is such a shock. The supporting cast, especially the detective, are great, and it is a lovely episode and a lot of fun. As usual AH does some lovely stuff at the beginning.

Give this episode a chance. It is definitive Hitchcock presents and a lot of fun.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Hidden Thing (1956) Season 1, Episode 34

deserves a better review

[9/10 · 9 October 2010]

A man finds himself trapped in his mind, unable to break through an important memory which will make it possible for the police to catch the person who killed the woman he loves. A strange man keeps calling and finally comes over to say he can help this poor man remember an important number.

The ending, which will go unspoken here to avoid spoiling it, is the reason why the two previous posters did not like this episode. I for one loved the ending. Sure, there were many other choices and reasons for what the man had done, but since the viewers can easily remember the license plate, through the art of the cameraman, it is a wonderfully ironic ending which is so much less obvious than any other could be and makes you shake your head at bullet headed authority. One has to wonder what will happen next to this poor guy and his Svengali and the cops. The acting is wonderful by two Hitchcock regulars

Rendition (2007)

is it ever, ever right to torture an individual

[10/10 · 21 October 2007]

I saw the movie yesterday and was shocked by it, but even more shocked by some of the comments I have read here. One person wrote that it was ambiguous if the victim of the torture was guilty or not--therefore... One person wrote that since he wasn't an American citizen, therefore... Some people comment that the people in the Middle East hate us and want us dead, therefore... So are we saying then that it is right to torture someone who is guilty of a crime? Are we saying it is right to torture someone who is not an American Citizen? Are we saying that it is right to torture someone who may hate us and want us dead? Are we saying that, as is written in the Geneva Convention, the Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the United States that "torture is wrong, but some torture is less wrong than others?" When does it become "right" to torture? THAT is why this movie is powerful-- it is ambiguous, but not about torture. Torture is always wrong, and if we are willing to do it, even in the name of justice and "National Security" or "freedom and democracy" then we are wrong and we are evil; we are doing exactly what we are accusing our enemies of doing (and we are calling them "wrong" in the same breath.) My favorite line in the film was "if you don't want to compromise join Amnesty International." Right on.

O Cheiro do Ralo (2006)

a metaphor for Brazil

[10/10 · 13 September 2007]

I felt odd about the movie. I know deep down I both hated it and loved it and I certainly can't stop thinking about it. It really is a sarcastic masterpiece, but very hard to watch. I didn't find it particularly funny in the spots where the audience laughed the most, and often felt horrified. I haven't read the book, which I'm sure is fantastic. Being lucky enough to have lived in Brazil for 7 years in the past, (e sim, eu falo Portuguese), I felt more and more the satiric edge of the main character as a metaphor for the worst things about Brazil lovingly portrayed by a master-- the obsession with the bunda over the female (that scene where he doesn't recognise he is not speaking to his favorite waitress till she turns around was incredible); the buying of worthless, often superstitious items over things really of value (100 rieis for a Stradavarius!?); the man constantly saying, "that smell is not from me, it's the drain;" (that line is especially deep and frightening and I understood it well); him giving all that money for the gun in a scene that looks like robbery; the fake father (leg and eye);his horrible treatment of the weak and helpless and poor; the growing obsession with the smell of his own excrement. I know the movie is a masterpiece-- the trouble is its view of the world through that glass eye is one I, too, would prefer to leave in the next room, perhaps.

Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land (1992)

a beautiful voyage

[10/10 · 10 August 2007]

I saw this film when it first came out at the Vancouver International Film Festival and I have never forgotten it. The stories intertwine beautifully and the cinematography is incredible. I would love to see it again, and not sure where I could get a copy, but I often mention it to my students. If I remember well, there are three stories-- one is about two theatre groups in modern Taiwan who have been booked to rehearse in the same theatre, causing enormous fights between the two groups. The second is one of the plays which is called "Secret Love," about an old man who left a lovely girl in China to move to Taiwan. The third is the other play, based on the fable "Peachblossom land," in which the listener sees memory and loss of something so beautiful given up for mundane daily life. One of my favorite films, ever. I feel fortunate to have seen it. The play version is now a big hit in China, too.

Fields of Mudan (2004)

beautiful film

[10/10 · 6 November 2006]

I saw this film at an Amnesty International Film Festival of 20 films and this one, in a field of really excellent films, was the best by far. Not only does it show, in a very subtle way, part of the real horror of our world where children can be exploited to appease the sick lusts of adults with enough money to pay for what they want and no conscience to stop themselves, but it accomplished this in a poetic, beautiful and ironic way. All the actors are terrific, and the ending has the same powerful effect as other great short films of the past. There is mystery and foreshadowing to a secret that the audience doesn't even know they are waiting for-- which, when revealed, bursts a huge bubble of preconceived notions and prejudices and makes one even angrier, with a intensified desire to stop these monstrosities. Bravo.