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Reviews
Armageddon (1998)
This movie is the worst
An exercise in excess. Everything is overblown and overdone. The music is too much, the acting is too much, the editing is too much. Why show a scene with only one or two shots when you can have, oh, about 45 cuts in a minute, and practically all of it shot as closeups. Layer overblown music on top of that and have everyone yelling at everyone else, everyone acting full blast. Add in a some overblown emotional scenes that are there as some attempt to fill in the story. Billy Bob is about the only guy who somehow remains slightly above the hackneyed level of the script. And of course you don't have sound in a vacuum, but I suppose someone thought incessant sound added to the (nonexistent) excitement.
King Kong (2005)
Absolutey top notch entertainment
I hadn't exactly avoided this movie when it was released, but I didn't go out of my way to see it and then other movies came along and I never made it out. I had the idea it was going to be a routine special effects movie, and I'm pretty much tired of those things. I don't think most directors know how to create excitement with special effects, its all noise and flash but little in the way of suspense and an actual sense of danger. Plus, of course, I think most people have seen one or both of the previous King Kong movies, so watching this one would seem to be at least partly an exercise in just seeing how Peter Jackson might have done things differently.
So I saw it tonight and you can scrap everything above. It really is a marvel. The special effects are better than any I have ever seen before. You know you are seeing special effects, they have to be, right? there aren't any dinosaurs running around these day, its just that they don't look like special effects, so well integrated into the film are they. What I liked even more than the effects is the set design (designs) of the two main settings. Opening and closing is Manhattan in the 1930's, and I didn't get the feeling I often do in a period film of someone painstakingly recreating the look, where the cars look just a little too new, where things somehow seem just a little too carefully placed and selected. Instead it looks like they might have digitally inserted the characters into actual footage taken in NYC at the time the movie takes place. And the island, considered as set design, is created as a truly exotic and frightening place. And there are a few shots of Kong and Ann on high cliff overlooks that of themselves are like first rate photographs.
And, strange as this may sound, the guy playing the big ape is quite good. Jackson and the actor/CGI do quite a good job of creating a personality for Kong. He does bring you around to sympathizing with him, wanting him to escape.
Minor quibbles he could have tightened up a scene or two on the island, although they really deliver, I needed a breather at the end of one of them. The ending probably went on too long and I think lost just a bit of emotional impact. You know where its going and you are sort of ready for it to go there, then it takes a little too long to wrap it up.
In short, this movie does just a great job of entertaining us for 3 hours.
Young at Heart (1954)
Longtime favorite musical
This has been a longtime favorite musical of mine, although there are some flaws in this movie, most notably the ending. (spoilers)
Those who think this is just the typical glossy Hollywood story are, I think, missing the point. The movie opens on an obvious set of an idealized small town neighborhood, complete with picket fence. But the story is in fact somewhat dark, with each of the three sisters falling for the same guy (Gig Young), while two of them are dating somewhat unexciting men, one a plumber, one a bit of a blowhard business man. As an added twist on the usual cheery Hollywood romance, the main male romantic lead is himself rather glib and shallow.
The music is excellent, this is the movie that turned me into a Frank Sinatra fan, in particular the scene where he sings "One for my Baby" in the noisy bar. Someone to Watch Over Me is also excellent, and Doris Day has some nice numbers.
As I said the ending leaves much to be desired, comes out of nowhere really, it seems to me that a scene or two tying things up may have been left out of the final version, or perhaps they just didn't know how to end the movie. I believe Frank Sinatra insisted they change the ending, perhaps that is the problem. Anyway, a fine musical with enough strengths to overcome the ending.
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Disappointing
I found this to be a fairly bland and disappointing movie. Nice set design, some very clever and creative effects and settings. But, once you get past that, there are several problems. First, there isn't any chemistry between the Portman character and Skywalker, who I found rather creepy, not sympathetic, and the dialogue between them is trite and their scenes together quickly became tiresome. Also, I found the transitions between some scenes to be rather jarring, as though some intervening scenes might have been cut out in the editing process. And the actions scenes feel rushed, just some staged set pieces with no build up, so no tension in them. I can't help but compare the very busy and noisy but uninvolving action scenes here with someone who knows how to stage a scene, like Michael Mann in Mohicans and Heat. Rating, 5/10
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Excellent
Excellent movie I thought, better than Black Hawk Down - better setup, more context. A few things I have read about this movie - Galloway and Moore would not sell the story to Hollywood for quite a while, they wanted to be sure the story was treated with the proper respect, not turned into an anti-war screed, so they only sold the rights to Randall Wallace and Mel Gibson when they were convinced the story would be told accurately. The dialog is what was actually said, those who call it a cliche, what should they have done, change it to reflect someone elses idea of what would sound realistic?
The movie is really about the code of honor among the men, the sacrafice they made, it makes no judgement about the merits of the war, those that complain about that definitely miss the point. And of course, its about the American side, yes it treats American deaths with more feeling than NV deaths. But there is some view of the other side, presented in a balanced manner. Good job by Gibson, probably helps that he played a compelling character, and nice supporting role for Sam Eliot. 8/10
They Were Expendable (1945)
One of Ford's great ones
One of my favorite John Ford films, and one of the best films about WW2. "They Were Expendable" is about the fall of the Philippines, beginning with the period around Pearl Harbor and following up to the time of the evacuation to Australia. Some very nicely done scenes with the usual fine Ford touch - the candlelight dinner, a phone call between Wayne and Donna Reed, the scene near the end on the plane. The movie captures the hopeless situation the American sailors and soldiers found themselve in and the courage they showed in the face of inevitable defeat.
The Way We Were (1973)
chemistry issues
I like the feel the movie has for the time and the place, late 1930's or so up through the fifties I believe, and the campus setting at the opening, but always had one problem with this movie - I could never quite accept that a cool guy like the character Redford plays would fall for the very serious, bookish, and socially awkward Barbara Streisand character. I have a low Streisand threshold, but still, its watchable enough, 6 out of 10.
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Why is this supposed to be funny?
I didn't really understand where this movie was coming from, apart from the idea that it is a parody. But every character is a buffoon, a dope, dolt, pompous idiot, fool. So you can't get behind any of the characters, that leaves you with the plot and supposed humor. But why seeing a lot of characters get killed that are no more than caricatures, that bear little or no resemblance to any living person, should be interesting or funny I don't understand.
Ali (2001)
disappointing
I'm a big Michael Mann fan, had anyone else directed this not even sure I would have gone to see it. But, I don't think he succeeded with this one. Maybe Ali is just to familiar to me, but I kept seeing Will Smith playing Ali, not Ali himself. I also thought he looked a bit small, did not have the more physically imposing presence that Ali had.
Regarding the story, the final fight with Foreman was dealt with in a much better manner in the documentary "When We Were Kings", so I found that segment already familiar and disappointing. The movie never really gave me a sense of why he became such a popular figure, his rise to world wide fame is something the movie did not attempt to deal with. Also an odd flow to the movie, little narrative, I didn't even know what city Ali lived in until he was introduced as the Louisville slugger, the end of his first marriage dealt with in a minute or so, and his appeal to his jail sentence dealt with only peripherally, no sense of how long that went on or how he ultimately won an 8-0 victory in the Supreme Court (as an aside, there are 9 justices, wonder what happened to number 9).
Soldier (1998)
How about some dialogue?
Give the lead character more than 100 words of dialogue. A personality would be a nice addition too. I get the point they are making, maybe they could have actually tried to tell the story in an interesting manner, injected a little vitality and energy into the story. And I'm sorry, I don't buy the ending - the gross misjudgement of the opposition by the commander, the martinet officer, etc.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Split personality
I liked the Kubrick part, I did not like the Spielberg part, at least the parts I assume each are responsible for. The ending is decidedly Spielbergian - the nice, slightly syrupy music, the ET like robots, the ET like moon through the window, and the slightly overbearing narration. The preceding couple of hours seem to have a harder edge, I don't think Speilberg quite knew how to resolve things in the spirit of the first two hours, and reverted to his usual sentimentality.
First couple of hours get an 8, the remainder, a 4.