Change Your Image
Sailor-21
Reviews
Bacurau (2019)
A strong contender for Worst Flick Ever.
This movie has no narrative structure, no discernible plot, and no intelligible characters. Its pacing is jerky to somnolent. After watching it, I could only ask, "Why.? Why did somebody make this? What's the point? Why this egregious waste of resources?"
Do yourself a favour - don't waste a single second watching this.
Tallulah (2016)
A gem!
My wife and I both found this a small masterpiece.
The writing is enchanting.
The players are superb. Ellen Page never ceases to amaze. She is one very talented lady.
Allison Jenney's work is always worth watching, never more so than in this flick.
I found the Carolyn part played just a wee bit over the top.
At a time when far too many movies are made for a young audience devoid of aesthetic sensibility, it's movies like this that rekindle love of film in the mature movie-goer.
Vals Im Bashir (2008)
A so-so film
I've read many of the comments about this movie, and am sorry that I don't share the enthusiasm of many of you.
I found the film incoherent and disappointing.
Incoherent, because I don't understand what the movie is about.
For most of the film, the theme seemed to be the precariousness of memory - the fact that memory is based as much on our imagination as on actual events. In the context of the violence and chaos of war and its brutalizing effect on its participants, memory is subtly and subconsciously shaped to enable participants a measure of subsequent sanity and coherence.
If the film had explored this theme in some detail, it might have become a fascinating documentary. Unfortunately, this theme, once presented, is not explored in detail. We're offered a number of characters who simply don't (or can't stand to) remember much in the way of facts about the 1982 war with Lebanon. Nothing connects to anything else.
The second theme is a visit to the sad tale of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The film does not tell us anything about this sad tale that we didn't already know, nor does it expand on the opening theme of the precariousness of memory.
I didn't care for the use of cartoon figures rather than real people in the movie. The use of cartoons greatly weakens the exploration of the opening theme of the fragility and precariousness of memory. How are we to judge the truth value of what cartoon figures tell us? Nor, in my opinion, does the use of cartoon figures do much for the massacre.
If Mr Folman has no memory of his service as an active soldier other than his furloughs, the war must have been a horrifying experience for him - and I offer him my sympathy. But the film didn't do anything to deepen my understanding of the unending chaos and conflict in this part of the world in general, or the Sabra and Shatila massacre in particular.
Amazing Grace (2006)
Disappointing
I can't agree with the many commentators who found this a great movie. It isn't.
I think many viewers confuse Wilberforce the man with the movie.
I have nothing but admiration for Wilberforce, a man with a powerful moral vision and great determination, who spent 15 years persuading his fellow parliamentarians to do the right thing and abolish the slave trade.
The movie does not measure up to the man.
The movie is nothing but a collection of pretty period scenes and idiosyncratic actions. None of the characters are developed in any depth. There is not a strong story line, moving inexorably from the beginning to the end of the sage. The story, such as it is, hops confusingly back and forth in time, to no particular purpose. There are scatterings of little vignettes, which add nothing. The script is dreadful.
The acting is fine, if frequently overdone. I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of Pitt the Younger.
The costuming, art direction and photography are fine, but do not redeem the film.
Too bad. Wilberforce deserves better.
Broken Flowers (2005)
Self-indulgent trash
Spoilrr? What's to spoil? With the best will in the world, I can't find any merit in this piece of trash. I've now seen two movies with Bill Murray in the past year - this one and another piece of self-indulgent trash where Murray plays an actor visiting an Oriental city (Tokyo? Hoong Kong? Who cares?) where we are treated (?) to endless sequences of Murray looking bored and detached. Same as in this masterpiece. I'll never watch another movie with Mr Murray in it.
Why do people get involved in creating such worthless crap? Why am I bothering to write this? After seeing something like this, the only possible response is to remember that the theory of evolution is only a theory. We're getting more infantile at an alarming rate.
Do yourself a favour - don't go see this movie. In fact. don't go see any movies at all for a couple of decades. Maybe a couple of centuries.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Truly awful
It takes a lot of effort and determination to turn Austen's superb novel into something truly awful. The producers, writers, director, and cast of PP2005 have managed to do just that. If you cherish the novel, don't go see this movie. If you love movies, give this one a miss. If you're feeling optimistic about the state of the arts in our time, go see this movie - you'll be cured of your optimism for a long time to come. When I had finished watching this movie I felt like undergoing ritual flagellation.
I couldn't find a single thing to like about this movie. It's completely over the top. From the ball, where a few fiddlers and flutists manage to sound like an 80 piece orchestra, to Blethyn's tedious and patented hysterical mother, to Dench's absurd Lady de Bourgh, to the hysteria of the five sisters, to earsplitting cacophony of the five Bennett sisters in full cackle, to Knightly's vacuous face, to . . . words fail me.
I'd give the movie a zero if I could. Pace, Miss Austen; this too will pass.
Syriana (2005)
A talented film maker, a disappointing film
The world is a complicated place, the oil business is a big business involving big money, the Near East is a complicated place, and the government of the USA is a big and complicated organization that acts to achieve ends that most of us can only guess at. So any movie involving all these elements has the potential to be very complicated. It follows that any plot-driven or character-driven movie set against these elements as background would have to be carefully written, so that the background complexities don't overwhelm the plot or characters.
As will be evident from the other postings to this site, Syriana is not plot or character driven. If I had to characterize it, I'd call it an impressionistic movie - a movie that offers us a collage of vivid events, but leaving us with nothing more substantial than a set of impressions. It's a Traffic clone.
But where Traffic presented us with a background that we're familiar with in North America (our children addicted to drugs, unscrupulous drug dealers supplying what our addicted children and fellow citizen addicts want, and the US government at war with both consumers and suppliers), in Syriana the background includes all the elements outlined above. Unfortunately, as most of us don't have the same knowledge of the international oil business as we have of the domestic drug problem, we are mystified much of the time when we are watching Syriana as to what is going on. To make matters worse, Syriana contains numerous very short scenes - fragments, really - in which characters speak in very terse jargon about things that may be important, or not; since they're difficult to decode, many of these zingers escape us.
Then there is material in the movie that has nothing to do with anything, and serves no purpose whatsoever. The whole subplot about the young Palestinian who (implausibly) becomes a mass murderer, serves absolutely no purpose in the movie. Even the implausible energy consultant Goodman (played by Matt Damon) serves little purpose in the movie.
Gaghan is at his most plausible in his treatment of the rich and powerful, with their casual contempt of lesser mortals. Although this is not exactly a new story, Gaghan presents it well.
All in all I find Syriana disappointing. Gaghan is obviously a talented film maker, and I wish he had made a better movie - a movie with a calmer pace, with more fully developed characters, and offering us a more searching look at the global energy business. See it, by all means. But don't expect to walk away from the movie enlightened about the global energy business, the complexities of the Middle East, or the machinations of the American government.
Crash (2004)
Superb
Go and see this movie.
The subject, race relations, is always a tough one, and not many movies come to the heart of it. This one does. It holds you spellbound as Haggis unfolds his story.
The casting, playing, and editing are all flawless. I find it impossible to single out any one of the actors, as they all play so naturally and flawlessly.
Is there a moral to the tale? I don't know. It doesn't feel like a moral tale. It's just a story about real people, flaws and all, who live their lives as best they can in LA. There are no real villains here, even though some of the characters do some dreadful things. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. It just so happens that in this particular movie race is the engine that drives the story.
Go see this movie; you'll be glad you did.
The Merchant of Venice (2004)
Bravo
This film is not to be missed.
I was not as impressed with Pacino as others have been. I found Pacino was too mannered in his work. Whenever Pacino was on screen I didn't feel I was watching Shylock; I always felt I was watching Pacino acting the part of Shylock.
I also could have done without the introductory explanation of the position of Jews in Venice during the late Renaissance. I question its accuracy, and think it detracts from the movie overall. But it's an imperfect world. Merchant is a difficult play for those of us watching it in the shadow of the Holocaust, and I suppose some concession is necessary to modern sensibilities. However, if the producers of the movie found it necessary to explain Venetian attitudes to Jews in the late 16th century, I would also liked to have seen them point out the King Edward I permanently banished Jews from England in 1290; this fact makes Shakespeare's insight into the plight of Jews in Venice in 1595 truly remarkable.
But for the movie as a whole, it is glorious. It is a visual and aural treat, the acting is superb (I particularly enjoyed Irons' Antonio), and the adaptation of the play to the screen is excellently done. Bravo!
Fa yeung nin wah (2000)
Simply beautiful.
This movie is not to be missed.
The camera work is stunning. Not in-your-face high impact. It's painterly, beautifully composed and framed, letting the story unfold is it must. The camera "sees" the characters.
At times, the movie almost seems like a ballet, as the characters dance their dance of engagement.
If you treasure fine film, don't miss it.
Thirteen Days (2000)
Disappointing
I found 13 days disappointing.
I was in my 20's during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and well remember what a riveting event it was. Everybody at the time knew that the world was on the brink of nuclear war, and everybody breathed a very deep sigh of relief when it was over. The world had been so terrifyingly close to the Apocalypse!
We'll never knew exactly how the crisis was handled, in Washington and Moscow, but I'm fully prepared to give the late President Kennedy and Secretary Khruschev full marks for drawing us all back from the edge of the abyss. It was a horrifyingly difficult crisis to deal with, as the US-USSR stance had been highly adversarial for decades, there was no direct communication between the US and USSR leadership at the time, and both sides had military complexes chomping at the bit for a resolution of the problem through military means.
I didn't find "13 Days" a satisfying re-telling of the story. I found the script, casting and editing weak, and the movie about half an hour too long. The top military men were presented as intemperate juveniles, and all the top military and political figures (with the exception of the O'Donnell character) were completely lacking in subtlety, gravitas and depth. Others have commented on Costner's now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't accent.
What made the Cuban Missile Crisis such a horror was that neither side knew what the other was thinking or would do. The movie lacked all sense of that.
The movie also didn't convey how very concerned all we ordinary folk were about the whole terrifying situation.
I give it 5 out of 10.
High Fidelity (2000)
Thoroughly satisfying
As I browsed through the comment posted on IMDb about this movie, it occurred to me that many of the people commenting are quite as fierce in their views about movies as the record store guys are about records.
First off, as I was born before WWII got under way, the musical references throughout the movie meant absolutely nothing to me. That's a statement of fact, not a criticism. I was able to just enjoy the movie, without having to bother my head about the technical musical stuff.
The movie certainly passed my threshold test of any movie - whether it induces suspension of disbelief. The characters were thoroughly credible, and the story line held my attention all the way.
The characters were all beautifully drawn and likeable. I found the Charlie character interesting. She's more stunning than anybody has a right to be. Us guys just have no defences against anybody that gorgeous. We just want to throw ourselves at her feet. So it was very satisfying to see that she's just a gorgeous but shallow facade after all. Serves her right! I also liked the subtly steely undertone in the Laura character.
The Barry character was masterfully drawn. Mr. Relentlessly Knowledgeable himself!
I thought that the looking-into-the-camera bits were done just right. I gave a little groan when this first happened in the movie, because those bits don't usually go down right for me. Even a voice-over narration such as Spacey's in American Beauty (a much-overrated movie, by the way) doesn't usually work for me. But here I found those bits just right, fitting in well with the overall consciously self-conscious nature of the record store gang. And what a nice thing to say about anybody, as Rob did, that the second best thing he liked about Laura was that she had character, because when she was having a bad day she didn't take it out on the people around her! If somebody were to say that about me, I'd marry her on the spot!
If I have one criticism of the movie, it's that it drags just a tad towards the end. The bits after the funeral of Laura's father weren't really necessary. They added nothing to the story or the characters, except for the surprise about Barrie's stage presence - and I'm not sure I find that aspect of Barrie's character plausible. (Can you be a relentlessly knowledgeable self-centered vinyl geek and also a performer who has the gift of sharing himself with an audience? I think not.) I think the pacing of the movie would have been better if Rob's realisation that he loved Laura had followed smartly after the affectionate sex-in-the-Saab scene.
All in all, a thoroughly satisfying movie - nicely scripted and nicely played.
BTW, I think it's grand that IMDb has a spell checker for these postings. I get thoroughly annoyed every time I read mis-spelled rants on the web, and Lord knows there are enough of those. If we're going to rant, let's at least rant literately!
And hey - even a new window for the list of mis-spellings, so that we can easily flip back and forth between our mis-spellings and our text. I'm impressed!
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
A sad end for Mr Kubrik's career
After seeing YWS, my first thought was that Mr Kubrik, gifted movie maker that he was, had not the slightest feeling for the nature of the bonds between real people. My second thought was that Cruise and Kidman were perfect "actors" for this movie, as they are both perfect facades with absolutely nothing behind those facades. Interesting.
On reflecting on this movie overnight, my initial reactions are unchanged.
The only interesting thing about this movie is that so many people seem to have found it interesting and/or excellent. Even Mr Ebert has found nice things to say about this goofy movie. Maybe he didn't want to say harsh things about a dead man's last movie, or wanted to show respect for Mr Kubrik.
The movie utterly fails my first test for any movie - that it suspends disbelief, and draws me into the movie's reality. Never during the movie was I drawn into it. It was a long 2½ hour movie about Tom and Nicole being in a goofy Kubrik movie.
The story-line, about a man 10 years married going off into a wild sexual fantasy because his wife confessed that she'd lusted after another man the year before, might have been credible in 1920 Vienna. It's just plain silly when the setting is 1999 New York.
I gather there was a lot of hullabaloo about digital alterations made to the orgy scenes. I don't understand the hullabaloo. The movie would have been no less goofy if full clinical details of sexual intercourse had been laid out on the screen.
I've greatly admired several of Mr Kubrik's movies, and will probably see them again. This sad piece isn't one of them.
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
Magnificent
What can I say? Movies just don't get any better than this.
The story is as old as time - young love set against a background of vastly differing cultures. Add the historical background of the interment of Japanese Americans during WW II, and the story becomes riveting and painfully real.
The photography is nothing short of breathtaking, and the musical score perfectly complements the visuals. In fact, if I have any criticism of the movie, it might be that the visuals and audio are so strong as to be almost overwhelming. But then I saw the movie in a modern, small, high-impact cineplex theatre perhaps more suitable for movies that are all slam bam high impact audio and video. So maybe I saw it in the wrong venue.
No matter. The movie is a masterpiece. If ever proof were needed that the Oscars are a farce, this movie is it.
The scene where the Japanese Americans are taken from their homes, driven to an assembly point, and shipped off, is stunning. Not a word of dialogue intrudes, yet the scene is the most eloquent rendering I've ever seen of that sorry piece of history.
I simply have to see this movie again.
Earth (1998)
Disappointing
The partition of India, and the ensuing violence between Muslim and Hindu, is one of the great tragic stories of our time. "Earth" doesn't do it justice.
The story is told in the context of a Parsi family, and the young men who adore its beautiful nanny. Unfortunately, that's too small a canvas to do justice to this epic event.
Yes, the nanny is gorgeous, and all the characters are lovely, and the photography is pretty, and the music is evocative, and isn't it too bad that partition led some people to do very bad things, and isn't it all just so sad.
Well, yes. So what's the point of the movie? The movie didn't move me. It seems like little more than an exercise in self-indulgence on the part of the film-maker.
Fight Club (1999)
This is garbage
This is the worst piece of trash I've seen in many a long year.
I've seen comments that the movie presents the shallowness and hypocrisy of the squares all around us, and offers a way out through the infliction and receipt of pain in bare-knuckled brawling with consenting partners.
Sorry, I can't see it that way. All I see is a tiresome and unappetizing jerk who turns into a tiresome masochist with bruises. There is nothing liberating in this piece of trash. There is only an inauthentic jerk who turns into a more disagreeable inauthentic jerk.
Given that it takes a lot of money and a lot of talented people to make a movie like this, it's incomprehensible how this piece of trash like this ever got made, and even more incomprehensible how any sane and intelligent critic could find any redeeming qualities in it.
If the movie demonstrates anything, it's that lunacy and tastelessness has taken over. The inmates are in charge, and we're all living in a lunatic asylum.
Hilary and Jackie (1998)
Oh, dear!
It was sad to see the gifted Emily Watson in so dreadful a movie. Particularly sad was the fact the the Jacqueline character was the least convincing of the personalities in the movie - the character never came to life for me, in spite of Watson's efforts.
The scenes where she was pretending to play the cello were uniformly embarrassing. The cello is the most physically involving of the instruments in the orchestra. Instrument and player are joined in a deeply physical enterprise. Hard (probably impossible) to simulate. Watson's efforts were embarrassing.
The husband-sharing episode probably occupied a third of the movie by the time all the nudge-nudge and emoting were done - far more than it merited.
The opening scene, with its pitifullycute little girls, referred back to in the ending, was just a tacky little bit added on,with no relationship to anything else in the movie. The partial split in the movie, telling part of the story from Hilary's and part from Jackie's point of view, added nothing. I could go on and on. Whoever scripted, directed and edited the movie should find another line of work. The book itself should probably not have been published.
The story isn't about a gifted musician. It's about the untalented sister of a gifted musician. Too bad.
I'm saddened that Emily Watson had anything to do with the whole sad enterprise.
Ba mùa (1999)
Enchanting.
For me, a threshold test for any movie is whether it suspends disbelief. Does the movie draw me into its world? Does the "Once upon a Time..." of the opening sequence enchant me to the point where I lose myself in the movie for the next few hours? Would I notice, or mind, if the theatre were to catch fire during the movie?
Three Seasons passes my disbelief test with flying colours. As Tony Bui spun his magic web, I was his, to toy with as he wished.
The movie is gorgeous, and treats all its characters with the complete respect they deserve. This is one very promising directorial debut.
The Man with Rain in His Shoes (1998)
A romantic comedy with a twist
The classic romantic comedy formula is Boy meets girl, Boy loses girl, Boy and girl make up and live happily ever after. Twice Upon a Yesterday is a romantic comedy that doesn't follow the classic formula.
My wife and I drove 200 km to see the movie on our wedding anniversary, and found the effort well worth while. The movie is charming, fun, and offers male eyeballs in the audience the treat of looking at the delectable Penelope Cruz.
Go see it.
L'assedio (1998)
A treat for grown-ups.
In a time when most movie fare seems made for the sex/violence obsessed or for cyberjunkies, it's a treat to see a movie made for grown-ups. "Besieged" is beautifully made, and its characters are as real and as quirky as people are in real life. The sound track is riveting.
If you're a grown-up, don't miss "Besieged".