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Reviews
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
180,000,000 $ spent on nothing much...
IMDb gives the above number as the budget of this film. I'm wondering where all that money went to: The acting is of the worst kind, the story unbelievably laughable, the dialogue is tiring, CGI and effects look awful, there's no kind of storytelling whatsoever, etc. etc.
Here's some of the (dozens of) questions that came up and were left unanswered during this movie:
Why are humans so important in that world? Why are pigs and cattle 'bad' animals and others (beaver, fox) 'good'? Why is everybody eager to give their life for some children that never have proved themselves worthy for it? Why doesn't Mr. Tumnus fall over when standing still - I mean, he's only got two hooves and according to physics and gravity he has to fall over unless he scuttles. What did the professor give the children at the end of the movie? Why is the white witch able to put a whole country under snow, but isn't able to kill some inept children? Why does everybody in this movie have to speak in such a momentous and meaningful voice - all of the time? Did anybody ever think about what this raw blend of racism, violence and salvation myths does to the suggestible minds of children (i.e. the target audience)?
I guess the idea behind all that was just to make tons of money from people wanting to see some pseudo-Christian-and-fantasy-themed movie. So they spent 1.50 $ on screenplay, actors, effects and direction respectively and the rest of all those millions went into advertising to trick people into paying money for this thing. It's the only way I can understand how such a piece (that would get the worst grade at every writing and directing school) could make it onto screen.
Go for the 1989 version instead - at least it had no budget to go along with no story, lame acting and even worse effects. Or simply wait till it's on free-TV - don't support something like that with your hard earned money.
I Witness (2003)
Great film dealing with 1st world/3rd world relations - but not a thriller
I won't write about the contents, others did that already - I'll write about the setting of the movie.
I was very pleased to find a US movie dealing with multinational corporations, unions, murder, police crime and environmental pollution in the form of a crime mystery that really works. This, I mainly attribute to the well balanced way everything was handled: Multinational corporations pay very low wages, but on the other hand, without them there might be even less jobs in developing countries. Trade unions help workers to more rights and higher wages, but on the other hand the multinationals just move on when the wages rise, etc. pp. OK, drug lords and crime play a big part in this movie, too - but I am glad these things are not depicted as being cool or glitzy, like in other movies. What I don't understand is the IMDb label 'Thriller' - the German word 'Krimi' (crime movie) seems to fit better. And like some German crime movies, the crime is only used as a vehicle for all the other trials and tribulations happening to the characters.
Watching all the street scenes and how people like the human rights guy might actual live in Mexican cities (where being abducted seems to be an almost daily experience) was much more believable and 'real' like, for instance, in 'Man on Fire'. Thumbs up for that.
To find such a multi-layered view of things makes watching this movie a pleasure - although the topic is very sad. Unfortunately this was a straight to pay TV/video release in Germany, so not many people will have the chance to watch it.
The only thing I missed was a real motive for the one shown as being responsible in the end. Maybe watching it a second time might help here.
Birthday Girl (2001)
If American movies only dared to dream like that more often!
I really was surprised by this movie as Nicole Kidman stars in it and all I expected was the mediocre-one-and-a-half-hours-Hollywood-screen-"fun" one usually finds in US-American movies. And although most (American) commentators here try to convince us that this movie was only mediocre and a shame for Kidman, I think different.
Maybe it has to do with the differences between European and US-American life: This movie has lots of twists and turns that you never would expect from an American movie. You can't name any of them without writing a Spoiler here, so all I can say ist that "who loves or hates whom and when" changes quite a few times in this film. But, of course, Kidman is always lovable - even as the shady character she plays here.
And maybe that's the reason the European commentators (like me) love this movie! Why does evrything always have to be in a straight good bad / black white scheme, when there are so many shades of grey that bring fun and love but also sadness and "Weltschmerz" into our lives. And that's what this movie is all about: A great comedy about people you might never really like and never really hate, but for whom you miraculously seem to care as the plot develops.
And given the strange "mail order bride" situation the movie begins with, it was sheer fun to watch the story unwind and see a movie develop in this dreamlike fashion I like so much. Of course, we encounter stereotypes here (uptight Englishmen, russian criminals) but they only serve to give the characters a basis, a starting point from which to develop.
If you enjoyed movies like "Crna macka, beli macor (Black cat, white cat)", "Arizona Dream" or "La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (The legend of 1900)" you'll love this one.
But if you prefer hard action with no plot, stay away!
This movie dreams its plot and takes us on an awesome journey - if US-American cinema would only dare do dream like that more often.
But as we see: joint ventures with Europeans seem to help.
Gli specialisti (1969)
Great Italo-Western, but yet depressing
The whole town of Blackstone is afraid, because they lynched Bret Dixon's brother - and he is coming back for revenge! At least that's what they think.
A great Johnny Hallyday and a very interesting, early Mario Adorf star in this Italo-Western, obviously filmed in the Alps.
Bret Dixon is coming back to Blackstone to investigate why his brother was lynched. He is a loner and gunslinger par excellance, everybody is afraid of him - the Mexican bandits (fighting the Gringos that took their land!) as well as the "decent" citizens that lynched Bret's brother. They lynched him, because they thought he stole their money instead of bringing it to Dallas to the safety of the bank there. But this is is only half the truth, as we find out in the course of this psychologically interesting western.
But beware, it's kind of a depressing movie as everybody turns out to be guilty somehow and definitely everybody is bad to the bone...
Still, I enjoyed it very much and gave it an 8/10. Strange, that only less than 5 people voted for this movie as of January 12th 2002....
Octopus (2000)
No story, bad acting, even worse special effects
Well, the summary says all there is - very annoying movie. Only Carolyn Lowery delivers some kind of acting.
The best is the end credits music!
And to deliver the required four lines: Why was this movie made?
Blast from the Past (1999)
Something we don't get very often from Hollywood
This movie shows us something that we (almost) don't see anymore in films coming from Holywood:
Good storytelling!
Along with great actors (see lineup above), a hilarious idea to start with and a minimum in special efffects, this movie gets a 9 out of 10 - although I usually don't give such a high vote for a film that is just "entertaining". But entertain it does - perfect!
Nothing about the story here, it would spoil all the fun this movie gives to you.
Supernova (2000)
Best since Matrix, but nobody seems to understand it...
So - what is this movie about?
Imagine what happens when other intelligent life doesn't want to be found and puts bombs all over the universe to ensure that it isn't found. All that wrapped up in a good, yet quiet(!), Sci-Fi and Action film.
Before reading other comments on this film I thought: Wow, what a great movie, why didn't I see it at cinemas over Germany? But now, after having read various opinions I guess I know why:
In this film you have to pay close attention to what is said AND done and how it is said and done. And you have to use your imagination - not every detail of technology (and how it works) or how a head is smashed is shown. But most people seem to rely on everything to be shown, so they can just CONSUME the movie. But this movie has to be attended (can't think of a better word, as I'm not an English native speaker). As I said: You have to pay attention.
Short plot description: A rescue ship coming to help a person; this person (Karl Larson) is trying to bring a 9-dimensional bomb(!) back to earth while thinking he brings a great artifact back home... But its purpose is to extinguish any race that is intelligent enough to fly into deep space and find it and bring it back home! The artifact/bomb makes him almost indestructible and ARROGANT. Having found out about the bomb, all crew members try to stop Karl Larson, but most of them die.
Karl is a person you really love to hate - even when he's still playing the handsome guy. Great acting. The other characters are well drawn as being well trained members of a rescue crew despite having their little problems that you can identify with. And these characters are well acted, too.
The rest is good special effects, a quiet, calm way of introducing the characters (YES it does remind everyone of Kubrick's 2001 and it's good to see storytelling like that again), the action is Alien-like but - NO MONSTER! Just a superstrong human that does what he likes and this is the frightening part: Somebody able and willing to do what he likes...
You might think this sounds like not being interesting at all, but it might be because I'm not as good at writing comments, than at actually understanding and discussing movies with other people in real life. I only wrote this, because a lot of people don't seem to understand the "what if..." question of this film.
I gave it a 10 - and I hope you will, too after seeing it.
Die Reise (1986)
German terrorists
Great film telling s.th. about the motives and life of German 70s terrorists - but without showing them as some kind of "heroes". Very interesting also, because one gets to know a little bit about the social circumstances in Germany the so called "68er Generation" luckily were able to change.