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Deviant Booger
Reviews
Birds of Prey (2002)
Nice try but no dice
When I first saw Tim Burton's Batman I was floored. I've been a Batman fan since I've been a comic book fan, always a fan of the triumphant human spirit over adversity, wit and strength over adversity. Burton captured that and and inherent psychological problems of the obsessive compulsive nature of the super human all human crime fighter and his foes. Burton defined the screen image of the caped crusader and his Gotham universe. This show, based in Gotham, involving some of the lesser characters of that universe, yet characters key to the dynamic that is Gotham, are presented here with a soap opera flair befitting a high school variety show. I haven't seen anything this bad since Batman & Robin. Not that I think Joel Schumacher destroyed the Batman franchise (on purpose), it's just that i don't think very many people really understand the appeal of the Gotham mythos. This show just doesn't get it. It reminds me of the the old outsiders comic book. The girls are pretty, and talented, but I think miscast. The direction seems weak with bad timing. If they want to have a Gotham TV show, why can't they just pull a Smallville and explore the pre-batman Bruce Wayne, he spent something like 12 years of his life traveling the globe and training himself to be the most unstoppable force alive (on paper). That I would watch.
Perfectly Normal (1990)
Dinner Theatre
I really don't know what to say about this film that could help someone understand it. I think this film stands for what is good and fun about Canadian cinema, like 'Paint Cans' stands for what is bad and awful about Canadian cinema. Not that I didn't like 'Paint Cans'. I haven't seen this film for quit some time either. So if you come across it somewhere, pick it up, I have a feeling that it is a rare find. Those more contemporary film buffs out there may be impressed to find Mr. Coltrane playing an American visitor (most recently starring in the Hughes Bros. 'From Hell' and 'Harry Potter', who is actually a Brit with a very stellar international career). This film is just a plain good time. And for anyone really in touch with Canadian film culture, this thing has its finger on the pulse of quirky. FORE!
Stroszek (1977)
Beer.
Since seeing this movie, I can not think of beer without thinking of Stroszek, and the way the word fell out of his mouth. Wonderful movie about the myth of the american dream. Fools gold? Ends in a way I did not see coming, and unpredictability, in a good way, is something sorely lacking in so much american cinema. Loved it.
Das Boot (1981)
Hands down the best Submarine movie ever.
This is the grittiest most realistic submarine movie I have ever seen. It takes the fun out of seeing decent sub-movies like U-571 when you've seen the movie (Das Boot) that the director was probably studying when he made that one (U-571), like, fer sure, ya know? Bad grammar aside, the sets are incredible, the fact that the actors and scenes were filmed in the order that they occur (so the facial hair is real), the sickly pale looks of the actors, living in the sub for hours and days on end, and the gripping humanistic drama of sailors in Der Fuhrer's Navy, this rather long movie is definitely worth the time spent. Can't say enough about it. The director's cut is a little disappointing, where some long exterior shot's of the sub are obviously models, it really doesn't detract that much from the experience of this masterpiece.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Let's wait and see what time will tell
Maybe I'm sometimes too influenced by my own personal politics when it comes to evaluating the film I watch, but I found this film very entertaining and possibly more relavent than we may know.
I've read some of the other comments for this film and most are very well thought out and very articulate, but I am left questioning just how critical we as an audience need to be when we decide wether a film was a waist of time, a guilty pleasure, or genuinely moving.
Maybe I don't need to think about why Gigolo Joe's character is so attached to following around David to enjoy the chemistry they develop, and can entertain the idea that maybe in the future A.I. will actually mean intelligence as we enjoy it. Maybe I think David was exhibiting a psychotic desire to be human, because he was an imperfect prototype that was missing some of the equation, or perhaps he was a little boy that simply can't understand what he is, like so many little boys his age.
Whatever this movie was or wasn't, it is a fictional fairy tale, a modern retelling of Pinocchio, a fable that in this context echoes a possible future not so far away. Mechanically speaking, the human brain is only capable of so many calculations a second, modern computer power is quickly approaching and may soon surpass this benchmark. The idea that we could build a machine, maybe not a functional walking mecha, but a computer that can think for itself is not so far away. I find it a very entertaining premise for a film.
Maybe Kubrick could have done more with it, made it deeper with more effective sub plots and other such etc., but Speilberg delivers a very entertaining movie that asks more questions than it answers, and I like that. One of the best films of 2001. Explosive!