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clonesheep
Reviews
The Golden Compass (2007)
Not worth your time
It's a misconception by Hollywood types that a big-budget fantasy movie with a lot of special effects, etc., will automatically attract a large audience. After all, that were what the Lord of the Ring and Horry Potter series did. Truth is, special effect can only keep the audience's attention for 10 minutes. To keep their attention for 90 minutes, there has to be a coherent story.
This movie suffers what 90% of today's Hollywood movies do: Poor writing. Dialogs are devoid of any subtlety. There's no proper set up or anticipation. It's just lazy writing. Perhaps those who are intimately familiar with the original book, who already know the set up, would have a slightly more enjoyable experience watching this movie. But then again, judging by its quality, either the book itself isn't that great anyway or the movie completely failed to reflect the glory of the original. Either way, it's a failure.
Apocalypto (2006)
Very good film but short of perfect
This film takes the viewers to an adventure and it's an authentic and exciting one. The place was Pre-Columbus Central America, where the Mayas lived. There're good and bad Mayas. Our hero was a good one who tried his best to escape certain death to save his family. The cinematography is wonderful. The actions are first rate. There're no well-known actors in this film although Rudy Youngblood could become one. All cast members, save 2 or 3, were native Americans. It's in Mayan with English subtitle but all of these were well done.
My only minor complaint is that there're places where the violence was over the top -- could be better leaving it to the viewer's imagination. This makes the film unsuitable for viewing by younger people, who otherwise would have enjoyed the rest of the adventure.
Dreamgirls (2006)
An OK film for me
There is no denying that everybody in this film worked hard playing their parts. I can also see that the filmmaker behind it is good-intentioned. But at the end, this is just another (albeit high-end) product of Hollywood banality. Firstly, just like 95% of Hollywood products today, it is a recycling of old, tested, material, in this case a theatrical production of the same name. No originality. Secondly, the filmmaker, typical of creativity-challenged Hollywood type, just cannot resist using gimmicks -- Eddy Murphy singing, Beyonce acting, etc. They tried hard, but do we have such a shortage of singing and acting talents that we must use these two? As it turned out, the best performances in the film were not by those famous ones but by no-names such as Hudson. These are exactly the reasons that the quality of Hollywood movies goes down while their costs constantly go up.
Casino Royale (2006)
Unimpressed
I fail to see the praise that Daniel Craig has received for this film. There are critics who wrote that he is a James Bond who "can act". Well, the only value of a James Bond movie is in its sheer escapist entertainment. Who bought $10 a piece ticket to see James Bond acting Shakespeare? That aside, this film is average in its production compared to previous ones of the JB series. I rate it below average overall because really, all of the surprise elements in James Bond movies have worn off after so many installments. Think a 36th Gozilla movie or a 9th sequel of Friday the 13th. The audiences know what to expect so give them something new on top of the expected values. This movie I saw has neither. And Daniel Craig failed to entertain.
V for Vendetta (2005)
Not very impressive
I concur with tiemen64 and others with a similar opinion that this movie is full of clichés and not all that original. I guess there's a message that the filmmaker wanted to deliver but it's so shallowly constructed that it left no impact whatsoever.
The biggest problem of this movie is its lack of imagination. Evey character is portrayed with clichéd stereotypes. A fascist dictator has to talk in a certain way with a certain accent, and so on, all incredibly tiresome. This movie is also low on entertainment value. Is it an action film, or a thriller, or a drama? It's a mixture of all of the above but the end result is none of them. Bottom line is the filmmaker tried too hard to be cool but didn't have the talent to deliver. Another case of wasted money and time. Another case of Hollywood mediocrity.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Slightly above average
I find myself surprised, or maybe not so surprised, that I am in the minority by giving this film a middle-of-the-road 5, while the majority of readers here rank it either 10 or 1. Read on, then, as my comment might provide a fresh "third opinion".
Let's begin with a random note. Brokeback Mountain has been described as a "gay love story" but the most explicit nudity in the film are those with the women, notably the gratuitous nudity with Anne Hathaway's bare breasts. This is, in fact, the third time Ang Lee has asked a young, inexperienced actress to bare their breasts in a gratuitous manner. The other two being May Chin in the Wedding Bamquet and Jewel in Ride with the Devil. What is this all about only Ang Lee knows. The example here (that the director put more female then male nudity in a gay love story) illustrates the lack of focus of the film. That, indeed, is a major problem.
If the aim of the film is to portray, in a positive vein, a gay "relationship", it did not succeed. The two men we see are connected mainly by their need of sex. Other than the social constraint in the 60's and 70's, what separated the two men were mundane matters such as money and family responsibility, with which Ang Lee filled the film aplenty. That is not surprising to me. Many have praised Lee for being able to jump from genre to genre. In truth, all of Lee's films belong to the same genre, namely, family drama. Family drama is Ang Lee's comfort zone, upon which he built the movie, then added the gay theme to it. That is what Brokeback Mountain is at its core. Unfortunately, the family drama part turned out to be rather ordinary, while its permeance sidetracked the supposedly main theme -- the love between the two men -- in the film. In the end, the film is unfocused and the characters in it failed to connect.
This is not to say that the film has no merit. Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are excellent. The best scenes in the movie, oddly, has nothing to do with the gay couple but are all played between Ledger and Williams' characters. The cinematography is good, too. The soundtrack is boring, though.
Missing Link (1988)
A great film
I would give this film 9 out of 10. It's really fun to watch. Even without a dialog (or a plot), there's not a dull moment in the movie. And the ape man acted so well that I think he deserves an Oscar!
The filmmakers are apparently experts in the documentary of natural history, which explains the many beautiful sceneries (of Africa, I think) and intriguing sequences with animals. The documentary angle gives it authenticity, but this film has something more to say. It imagines how a pre-historic "ape man" of a now extinct species might have lived. This ape man is not a dumb beast but has a great sense of intelligence and humor (I would have said "humanity" but he is not human). Following his journey, we see mostly pleasant moments of delightful discoveries and occasionally fear and confusion. Then, the ape man has a moment of reflection that brings the film to a logical conclusion.
See this film. You will not be disappointed.