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Los dueños (2013)
The Dull, The Slow and The Ugly
Having visited Argentina several times and knowing about some of its great movies, I had looked forward to seeing The Owners (Los Dueños). Unfortunately, I found the movie incredibly dull and slow and for a country that is known for good looking people, I had to ask myself why was every cast member somewhere in a range from burnt out to below average to bad looking. The director clearly abused his privileges regardless of story. The knife scrapping across the toast, the drive backwards in the car, the melancholic faces, but so what? What did any of those directorial scenes add to the story. Nothing. Argentina can do much better than this film.
El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1999)
the same scene over and over again
I'm a fan of his books, but this movie seemed like I was watching the same scene over and over again. Someone wrote they took the magical realism out in order to make the film more realistic to the daily lives of Mexicans. Well, first, they should have kept the magical realism in, it would have been more cinematic. Second, I never got the impression we were in Mexico but rather in some ambiguous place in Latin America, maybe Colombia, but with all the different Spanish accents who the heck knew where we were. The director maybe Mexican but that does not make it a Mexican story nor part of the new Mexican cinema. At the very least the acting was good and the cinematography, too.
Seabiscuit (2003)
Not much of a story
You know a movie sucks when half of it has to be narrated. Even worst, we spent the first 20 minutes getting a lecture about Henry Ford's car production, the 1929 Wall Street crash, the great depression and prohibition, before we even got into the "story." Was this a movie about an underdog and his horse or a 7th grade social studies class?! An hour later, the movie was interspersed with other historical facts "a la Ken Burns" style with footnotes and still images about the New Deal, etc. The studio must have assumed that the audience was stupid and did not know that the film was set in the 1920s/30s/40s.
Fortunately, the sets were top quality and most of the lead actors were good, albeit they did not have much to tell us. If you are looking for emotion then you will have to depend on the music.
What Dreams May Come (1998)
Spectacular Visuals can not hide a Stupid Story
The best thing about this movie was the Spectacular Visuals and Special Effects, but the story is lame and cliché. Even the visuals of Hell are a complete ripoff from Dante's Inferno as are the the Catholic stereotypes throughout the film, thus unoriginal.
I loved the paint/painter metaphors in Heaven, albeit Heaven was ruined by the no-talent Asian actress'es lecturey dialogue. And, what, the hell was Cuba Gooding? The Phantom Menace? Who directed this? Who edited it? The protagonist should have just died and have gone to heaven from the get go, that way we would not have wasted the first 15 minutes of the film. Give me a break within 15 minutes, the protagonist met his wife in Switzerland as a "young" and UGLY Robin Williams, then there was their wedding scene, and thereafter their two teenage whiny sons!!!!!!!! We were expected to know and care about this family's first 16 years within 15 minutes? Then the kids and wife die? How stupid and meaningless is that?
Defiance (2008)
Schindler's List meets Fiddler on the Roof
Schindler's List meets Fiddler on the Roof. Yes, you read it right, that's how I have to sum up this film - truthfully. I'm not worried about the historical facts, which I am sure are dreadfully inaccurate. I'm simply sickened by another Hollywood attempt at releasing yet another holocaust film, by merely copying the style and tropes of yesteryear's holocaust film success story. The holocaust film genre is becoming an annual event, no different nor better then the annual holiday films released in December. Pity that the talent of top actors and cinematographers was wasted on what could have been a good story, if the director, producer and editor had had the guts to make their own style instead of just plagiarizing you know who.
Das Leben der Anderen (2006)
Bad Idea, Good Execution
Why and how did this film win the Oscar for best foreign language film 2006???? Clearly "Pan's Labrynth" should have won. I was eager to see "The Live of Others" after it had won the Oscar, and now that I have seen it my my question is why did it win? Politics? The Lola prize? Preferences for German films? Color theory? Actor preferences? Discovery Channel fans? This film had a major inauthentic hole. It is completely PRETENTIOUS to believe that a police investigator changed his attitude towards his work and towards his victims because of his exposure to art, specifically to his exposure to music from Beethoven. Was this a comedy? This film had almost everything else going for it, but the premise was so bogus that it made the rest of the film unforgivable. The acting was good. The scenery gray and tyrannical. The reality of East Berlin was authentic, but once again the premise was NOT authentic. No one, no one changes because they heard a score from Beethoven and or saw a play. They may be affected by that for a little while, but they go back to being themselves thereafter, especially a cold-blooded, career-oriented police investigator from the Stasi. Maybe if he had taken piano lessons for five years he would had changed and had seen his humanity, and the humanity of others, but not because he heard his victims playing a piano piece. BS!!! Rescind the Oscar and give it to Pan's Labrynth !
King Kong (2005)
Better suited as a video game rather than film
Honestly, I would have given this film a rating of 6 for entertainment. BUT, as a film, it was too pointlessly long. Some of the scenes seemed to be better suited for a video game. For example, the Jurassic Park scene where they are being chased down a path by dinosaurs escaping carnivorous dinosaurs was great in terms of special effects, but clearly completely digitized and silly, and pointless to the film. After about 2 hours and 15 minutes, I was ready to leave. I don't mind long films if there is something to communicate, but most of the length seemed to be about technologist instead of filmmakers seeing what they could get away with. Unfortunately, they got away with too much. I do, however, give Naomi Watts and the ape two thumbs up.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Many good films this year, this one especially
This film has everything going for it that a great film should have. First, a great story. Followed by great acting, direction, cinematography, music, editing, etc. You get the picture. I'm still thinking about it, because there were so many subtleties that all blend in together to form a congruent, consistent storyline. If you fear that you are going to go and watch a gay romance, fear not, because you are not. This film is about many things, but especially about the importance of living our lives honestly and confronting our internal suffering and loneliness. Go see it. I'm going to see it again, and there are very few films that I see twice.