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zminer1
Reviews
Fucking Åmål (1998)
Very well done
This was possibly the best teen-age relationship movie I have ever seen. With all the overdone, sensationalized movies about romance and "love-and-marriage," it was refreshing to see one which portrays the difficult side as well, without staying too long on the darker side of love either.
Even the ending (no spoiler, just commenting!) promises nothing in particular for the future, which is just as it should be. I can see how people might think there were unanswered questions, but ... those are the questions which always remain for people in ever-changing situations, so it is appropriate that they are unanswered.
I felt it was a great movie overall: 9 out of 10.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Not as bad as I thought it would be
I went to this movie having seen none of the previews, and knowing only of the game and who the star of the movie was. I expected it to be pretty awful, and luckily it wasn't.
However, it wasn't great either.
I was encouraged by the first few minutes of the movie that maybe Lara Croft would be portrayed as a self-reliant woman, able to handle on her own whatever was thrown at her. However, by the end of the film it was obvious that the men in her life (her father, her potential love interest, and the Big Bad Guy) were the motivation for her actions. That, combined with the shameless way her body was put on display (here I refer directly to the hackneyed shower scene, included for the sole purpose of exciting the prurient interest of the teen-age males in the audience) puts Lara Croft far outside the reaches of the strong female action character she could have been. (Think Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" series.) Hollywood needs to learn that female characters can have strength of character which is not directly linked to their sexuality. (Though our society says otherwise.)
In any case, the action scenes were well done and the film kept me interested, if not exactly enthralled. I give it a 6 out of 10.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Okay, but not a blockbuster
I was not overly impressed with Bruckheimer and Bay's project which has been hyped for so many months. It is a solid picture, certainly, but I could feel it being pulled in so many different directions that it was unable to become a war movie, or a love story, or a story of the triumph of the human spirit, all of which it attempted to be. You've basically seen all the effects before (some were taken almost verbatim from "Saving Private Ryan") and I felt that the love story, while good, needed to be something else. Either it needed to *be* the whole film, with the war as a background, or it needed to be left to the wayside entirely and instead concentrate on the tactics and emotions of war.
In any case, the movie is worth a look, but I don't think it deserves the hype it's been getting. (Though what movie these days does deserve its hype?)
Pennyweight (1999)
A Good Start
This movie is a good start for Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin. Rankin, who also stars in the film, has produced a quirky story of a young film maker who will go to great lengths to obtain money for his art. The humor in this film is very well done, unlike in many of the "comedies" these days which go overboard with physical humor or offensive themes. Rankin's character, Blaine Kinney, is very believable as a poor film maker trying any way he can to break into the world of Hollywood.
If "Pennyweight" is any indication of future works by this duo, I think they have a bright future in the independent film world, and possibly beyond.