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The Promise (2016)
Great film-a must watch
I had the opportunity to see the film during its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Going into the film, I had some misgivings regarding the love triangle aspect of the film. Luckily this was not a Michael Bay film and it was handled appropriately. I suspect the love story was created to make the film more accessible to audiences.
The film is at times intense and emotionally draining with the horrific backdrop of the true life events of the Armenian genocide. The inclusion of some humor and romance provides sometimes much needed levity with such a difficult topic.
Great performances all around but no one shines more than Oscar Isaac as the Armenian, Michael. It was disappointing to not to see more actual Armenians in a movie so entwined with the Armenian people. Of course Christian Bale is not American but plays one as he often does. Despite all of this, the actors and director created an emotionally engaging film. For the record, I am not Armenian but the film still resonated with me.
While I have not yet seen Terry George's most critically acclaimed film Hotel Rwanda, I am now confident he was a great choice to direct. I only hope that this film gets the critical acclaim that Hotel Rwanda did, as it certainly deserves it. If you get the chance to see it, please do so.
P.S. Don't be fooled by the inordinate amount of 1 out of 10 ratings. Hundreds of these were already posted before I even entered the rush line to see the movie in its first public screening. It's disappointing that people have to be so disingenuous with something as trivial as an IMDb rating
The Wisher (2002)
It sucked
OK, so I had insomnia, and this was basically the only thing on TV at the time. It was one of the most horrid and predictable piece of you know what that I have ever seen. I mean many horror movies are just bad, but this was absolutely awful. Frankly, I am surprised that a woman wrote the screenplay. Because it sure seemed like the person who came up with the idea (yes I realize that someone else could have written the treatment for it) was a male loner who was rejected by all the popular girls, and chose to write a story where attractive girls get slashed up and/or slaughtered, as some sort of sadistic symbolic payback. Although, I suppose that's not that uncommon in horror films, good or bad.
Then there was of course the ridiculous insinuation about subliminal messages able to persuade people to murder others. It mentions rightfully that the military stopped using them in the 60s. What it doesn't tell you is that subliminal messaging was likely abandoned because it basically has no effect. There is supposed to be suspension of disbelief when watching films, but in this case, it just makes for extremely horrible melodrama.
I am not really into horror films, but I can tell what a bad movie is, and this is a perfect exemplar of a horrible movie, regardless of genre.
Family Plot (1976)
Worst Hitchcock movie that I have seen so far
My headline says it all. After seeing some a mixture of masterful, entertaining,and occasionally mediocre Hitchcock films, I saw this "Family Plot" on television awhile back. This was admittedly last Hitchcock's film so I suppose I should give him some slack.
There always tends to be some elements of humour in his films, although its usually dark humour. If I am not mistaken this his first attempt at real comedy, and sorry to say he fails at it. Perhaps this is mostly due to the actors. And I apologize if I am offending anyone here but I don't find Bruce Dern or William Devane to be very good actors on the whole, and none of the other actors/actresses seem to bring too much to the project either.
Hitchcock even was very disappointed in this film the way it turned out, and I can see why. To put it simply, it's not funny and the story isn't very engaging the way it's presented. There is bound to many people that disagree with me, but that's my assessment.
If you are a Hitchcock fan, I would check it out just to say you have seen it and make your own assessment.
Revolver (2005)
Complicated but still a very good movie
Now, I'm not a typical "testerone" viewer, I won't go watch any action movie that has big explosions or lots of death and destruction. I think this is a much more complex work for Ritchie than his previous work (i'm thinking of lock stock and snatch, rather than swept away.
I do acknowledge that it can be hard to follow at times. His plot is not executed a la Lynch, in that the "twists" aren't completely out on Mars, that if you follow the bread crumbs, you can find what you're looking. You just have to know what to look for.
Gold is a fiction, he does not exist, but everyone comes to believe that maybe they are gold. Gold is the greatest con every conceived (in the realm of the movie), in that people fear what they cannot see, and they'd rather die themselves than find out what this mysterious person has waiting for them. Stratham's fellow con men from prison reveal that even though thought he really didn't know as much as he thought he did. They know more than anyone else, because they had created the con in the first place. Get your opponent to believe that there is someone bigger, stronger, than you, and they either eliminate each other, or they eliminate themselves.
It's a bit of a stretch to get a general audience to get their head around this, especially in one viewing. And admittedly including anime for no reason was a bit odd, but just as much as it didn't fit in Kill Bill either. I don't claim to hold all the answers, but this is what I got from the movie. At times I was a bit lost as well, but it eventually clicked for me.