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Reviews
La flûte à six schtroumpfs (1976)
May be disorienting!
Many adults forget that children used to the animated series "the Smurfs" may be disoriented by "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute". I don't forget how confused I was when my parents brought this home from the video store. First off, none of the usual human characters in the animated series appear in the movie. (Missing is Gargamel, among others). The biggest difference is that the voices of the smurfs are completely different than they are in the show, and only a fraction of the personalities in the show are represented. The voices have an eery and, frankly, annoying sound effect on them, making them sound even more chirpy and otherworldy than they ever did on TV.
These inexplicable inconsistencies are coupled with some basic faults: The smurfs do not appear until 20 minutes into the film, long after your kids have left the room or turned on the X box. The story is hard to follow and uninteresting. The magic Flute amounts to nothing more than an oddity for "hardcore" smurf fans.
Solaris (2002)
Layered and Thought Provoking
Solaris is a beauty to watch, and holds your attention with its apprehensive tone. Starting as a sci fi movie and crossing over into horror before submitting itself to a love story, Solaris uses multiple genres as tools for creating an overall emotional response to the storyline.
Attempts to easily define this film will lead to frustration and possible irritation with the film itself- Comparisons to '2001' are unfair: "2001" was resolved with sheer sci-fi wonder - that took place in an almost inhumanly cold and detached narrative. "Solaris" is the sum of such wonder coupled with a love story, and a deeply internal treatise on some difficult to answer questions. Some have accused it of being slow, and despite the repeated use of slow, still shots of the stillness of the space station, the film is only an hour and a half, and solves its first mystery in 20 minutes.
This answer to the question, "What's going on at Solaris?" only provokes mutliple new questions, some of which are unravelled by the movie's end. Even if as a viewer you don't hang on every shot you'll be more than occupied thinking about the significance of the ideas presented, and providing answers where there simply aren't any. Repeated viewings rewarded. I usually don't dig films like this. Ebert's review is dead on.
An Innocent Man (1989)
Tom Selleck Is An Innocent Man- Mainly because it's not his fault this movie is terrible.
Tom Selleck Is An Innocent Man- Mainly because it's not all his fault this movie is terrible. Suffering from some of the most prime examples of poor directing, music, and sound, Selleck's 89 film was a plan to grow upon a career established by Magnum, PI. Due to these drawbacks, the film plays like a typical episode of Magnum, the only theatrical aesthetic being its bizarrely overusage of profanity. It's as if a cast of TV actors are given free range of vulgar words and can't hide a devious giggle everytime they find themselves mouthing contrived dialog that includes "f-this you punk!" or "ain't life a m--f--er?". The TV directing style and MIAMI VICE style music makes the sudden violence and profanity seem jarringly out of place. One strength the movie has is its writing, which, despite poor dialog, makes even Selleck's slightly wooden performance seem tight and focused. If it weren't for the incredibly poor directing, set design, costuming, lighting, sound and music, F. Murray Abraham may not have been to embarassed to put this on his resume. Maybe.
Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)
Those who know Cosby from his sticoms will be amazed.
Mother, Juggs, & Speed is an incredible film because it is such a pure product of the decade it was produced in, but what makes it watchable is the character of Mother, a violent and sexist ambulance driver who gets kicks out of running his truck over nuns while drinking beer, played by Bill Cosby. Yes you read that right, The Cos, nuns, and beer. It just doesn't get any weirder than that. Combining the gritty reality of productions like Shaft and Hill Street Blues with the black humor of MASH, Mother Juggs & Speed attempts the absurd by presenting itself as a light comedy, despite its graphic language and violence. Weirdness continues in that it presents a young Harvey Keitel (Speed) winning the heart of would-be feminist Sophie Loren (Juggs). (Just don't let her see "the Piano"). Anyway, for anyone looking for a strange film with an even more paradoxical cast, MJ&S is for you. Oh yeah, and the lead guy from the soap Dallas (Larry Hagman) plays a perverted, violent, borderline-necrophiliac. It just doesn't end.