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allaboutthefamily
Reviews
The Last Days (1998)
Very good documentary on a subject that has its fair share of documentaries.
As far as documentaries go this one was informative and fast paced enough to keep you interested. I felt that the selection of vintage footage was right on the mark, along with *most* of the people they interviewed (it seemed kind of pointless to make the old lady go back to the refugee camp*brick factory* and cry, i don't feel it added anything to the story, plus she was not a very good interview). I think it gives us a good look into what things were like at that time, although the viewpoint is obviously biased. That is not to say i wish to trivialize the experience of the survivors, but it seemed odd that they sat the doctor, who had helped the Jews survive the holocaust by enlisting them in harmless tests, next to the old woman and practically let her attack him (an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind). The directing in the movie was nothing spectacular, as no great symbolism existed in many of the key shots, such as the survivors going back to visit the camps, but the work was solid although not artistic (which is par for most all documentaries). In the end this documentary relies upon the fact that it has a subject matter that sells, just as if i were to plunk down 30 million dollars and make a documentary about 9/11 a bunch of people would be on here saying it was the "best movie ever". no offense but subject matter does not a movie make. In conclusion i say if your looking for a documentary on the holocaust from a perspective of (polish?) Jews then this is your man, if you want to see a better story from the holocaust see schindlers list and if you want the whole story read a lot and goto the Museum of tolerance in either LA or NYC.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Weakest Link in a great trilogy
I thoroughly enjoyed the lord of the rings movies, with the exception of the last hour of the final film. Of the three films this was quite honestly the weakest, but it was still a pretty good movie and worth the price of admission. There is a point at which things become too "feel good" and commercialized and the last hour of this film more than crossed that line. 60 plus minutes of goodbyes, elves huggin (frolicking in bed together is a little weird but OK), just to wrap up the story. I like the movie but not enough that i want to watch elves kiss goodbye for an entire hour, it was just plain boring not to mention uncomfortable. The reason i say this film is more commercialized is that in all super popular movies things become less about the story and more about "cameos" from all your favorite characters which makes me think of them as marketing tools and actually takes away from the character (think xmen). anyways it really is worth a watch, but do yourself a favor and just turn it off once the conflict has been resolved.