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Reviews
Gladiator (2000)
Terrifyingly overrated movie
How this movie is being widely accepted as a "masterpiece" is beyond me. Frankly, the only good thing I can say about this movie is J.Phoenix' performance - IMHO, he was great, as always.
However, which is more than I can say for R.Crowe. The poster, who mentioned R.Crowe's range of "two expressions - arrogant & silly", was dead on, at least for this movie. I can see that Crowe did a great job by preparing for the role physically - i.e. growing muscles and all that, but his actual performance raised no emotions in me. Neither did the rest of the movie (with a possible exception of Phoenix' Commodus, as I mentioned above). The plot was predictable and ludicrous - oh, poor guy's family is killed (hmm... wonder where I have seen that before? Oh, yeah - in at least dozen of frickin'. Similar. Flicks.). So he's off to his revenge mission. And he gets his revenge by fighting the emperor in the gladiators ring. Now stop for a moment, please, and think about it. A slave (and I'm not even going into the fact that a roman of his position can't possibly stay a slave when his identity is known) challenges an emperor to a duel. Please. I'm not usually the one who bitches about and picks apart the inaccuracy of loosely-history-based movies, but the stupidity of these plot points is too much glaring. I can't take the events seriously, when they pretend to be realistic and accurate, but are not. For the f**k's sake, such final battle would fit in "Rocky", but here is too absurd. Once again I have to quite one of the previous posters with an analogy of fight between Bush and a prisoner. 'Cause that's what was going at the end of "Gladiator".
So, to sum up - acting: mostly meh; character development: practically non-existing; dialogues/writing: you call that writing??? special effects/fights/visual: these were good, of course (since this is a supposedly Epic. Hollywood. Movie!!!). But that's not why I watch movies. I watch movies for characters and plot. Alas, I wasn't able to find neither in this so-called masterpiece. So if you're at least tiny bit like me, I'm taking an unpopular stance and saying: don't waste your time on this movie. Even watching it purely for the visual side isn't worth it - there are much better movies with equally good effects and fights.
The X Files (1993)
Why is it still going on?
I like movies about paranormal, mystic events and so on. So I thought I'd like X-Files and I watched it at first. But after a few episodes I couldn't understand, why is this show so popular? Both agents, Mulder and Scully were boring and static, they remind robots more than true people. Stories about all killers also weren't convincible, and the line "The truth is out there" most probably means, we'll never see the truth. So I don't watch X-Files anymore. Instead I can offer "PSI Factor" - it's characters are more convincible, stories are much better and there is no murders in necessary in every episode.
Ma-ma (1976)
Fine tale in Russian style :p)
It's nice and impressive tale about Wolf, little Goats, their Mummy and more animals, such as Parrot or Bears :) Terrific duet of L.Gurchenko and M.Boyarsky, especially their "fight" on the ice, as far as I remember. Also: good songs, nice acting... Well, it's just the proper movie for all family. I liked it. P.S. Why there are no comments of Russian, Lithuanian movies? Doesn't anyone think some of these are really good???
The Money Pit (1986)
Really has some funny, unforgettable moments
Nice, funny comedy with few really unforgettable moments, especially at the first half of the movie. Good actors T.Hanks and Sh.Long. Of course, movie could be better, but it is good as it is. I think it is good-watching at the long winter evenings or when you have troubles with a house. It is just simple and funny.
Cats (1998)
Fantastic and unforgetable show
Fantastic show! I saw it on January 1st and I watched it every day all week. I think it's really great job. Actors had to be dancers and singers and they had to work really hard for such a result. Unforgettable music, acting, costumes and so on. I haven't seen the real show on a theatre, but I can recommend video Cats for everyone to see.