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Reviews
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2005)
It nearly ruined Leonard for me
In short, this is footage of a tribute show with Leonard Cohen material dressed up as a documentary.
It seems like the film only contained 15 minutes of Leonard Cohen himself, with the rest filled in with treacly words of praise from talentless Leonard-wannabes (except Bono and Edge) which interspersed the bulk of the film - hacks such as the Wainwrights butchering Leonards wonderfully crafted songs.
I can't tell you how bad it was to hear the catterwauling and tuneless wailings of a bunch of pretentious artsy folk. Nick Caves contempt for the country town he grew up in. Limpwristed Rufus and Martha breathe-singing into the mic like she has a cold. Bono trying to wax poetic for 5 stumbing minutes. Thanks, Bono - I was already aware there will never be another Leonard Cohen. There will probably never be another you or I either...
The format was also predictable for true fans of Leonard. When they showed one tiny snippet of his interview he mentioned his time in New York. Instantly I knew that the next scene would be at the tribute concert again, where someone would butcher "Chelsea Hotel" (the song is set in NY). And the film didn't let me down (in its predictability anyway).
A documentary that attempts to reveal the man behing the poetry would have been great. What we have here is just a groupie-fest - a lot of fawning and not a lot of Leonard.
Apocalypto (2006)
The most compelling movie I have seen in years
I have only left a cinema slightly shaken and visibly disturbed twice in my life. The first was Saving Private Ryan and the second was Apocalypto.
Try to see it without having big expectations, and don't bother to read any negative reviews you may come across - such reviews are little more than bias against the now out-of-favor* Mel.
The movie is a little like Rambo in plot - one mans escape against the odds, yet every character is memorable and the acting is convincing. Anyway the less you hear about this the better - just go see it!
ps - in regards to the word 'favor', I resent this site forcing me to Americanize the spelling. I'm just glad I did not have to use the words aluminium and nuclear...
10.5 (2004)
Awful, even for a made-for-TV movie
Appalling/awful/dreadful - take your pick! I kept watching this as I was unsure as to whether this was a parody of disaster films, but it appears that it is not. The scriptwriters ought to have been put on trial every piece of dialogue is as believable as a "Days of our lives script".
Where do I start? Everything from the authorities who stubbornly refuse to listen to the expert opinion of our heroes because "I'm just doing my job" comes across as farcical. Even those who are clueless about politics will just shake their heads at the words coming out of the mouths of the over-actors and say "Oh please". I found Homer Simpson's recruitment by NASA for space flight to be a more realistic portrayal of bureaucracy than this! The special effects were just as realistic. The poison gas doesn't affect our heroes until they announce to the audience what it is, and find safety inside a car with the windows wound up. Once safely inside, then they start passing out.
The computer during the earthquake shows a channel of ocean carving its way through half of America, the channel looking like half the width of California on the bureaucrats screens, yet when the cameras cross to the action of people running around aimlessly, lo and behold, the channel looks only about 50 meters wide! Considering the fact that this has been aired TWICE now on Australian TV, leads me to believe that the station producers must not screen movies prior to broadcast.
In short one for the extremely simple or the easily pleased!
The Last Supper (1995)
Rubbish
This movie would've been a hoot amongst some of the pseudo-intellectual Arts students when first released. But it was rubbish, the politically incorrect dinner guests were all crude stereotypes, and the ethical 'discussions' at the dinner parties would have been better left as an msn conversation rather than turning it into a script and subjecting viewers to sit through it.
So in short, this is a movie about a group of lefties, who despite the lefty catchcry of tolerance, murder a bunch of people who hold differing opinions to them. Now dark humour can be funny, if accompanied with some humour to begin with. But this wasn't funny. Unless one finds the murders in themselves to be funny? It came across as being nothing more than the scriptwriters deepest fantasy, that he tried to turn into a lighthearted romp. Perhaps someone from the other end of the political spectrum should rewrite 'The Turner Diaries' as a dark and witty comedy. I wonder if there will be the same lack of outrage that accompanies the release of these kind of movies. Perhaps Mel Gibson might direct it? I hope you dear readers perceive that I'm being sarcastic...