Visconti is thought of by film buffs as one of the maestros. He did make some beautiful and intelligent movies, but this is not one of them. Pretentious cinema students could talk for hours about The Damned, analysing it and discussing its themes, when really it's actually a shallow movie, with nothing interesting or original to say about World War 2, fascism or homosexuality. It's long too and poorly edited, which makes it feel longer then it is. Now, it is nicely filmed, Viscontis cinematography can never really be faulted. But his direction and screenwriting can be. And the acting is cringeworthy. Helmut Berger is terrible and annoying. His voice is whiney and grating. He was sleeping with Visconti at the time of making the movie apparently, which explains how he was able to play the main character, despite being so bad. Dirk Bogarde isn't in it enough and Ingrid Thulin isn't given enough to do either. A waste of two great actors. If all the funny and grotesque parts of Salo by Pasolini were cut out of the film, and it was just the boring bits when people are monologueing for hours on end, you'd have this. It's a poor movie that's basically an exploitation of the horrors the Nazis perpetrated in World War 2. It's insulting to Survivors and the audience in general. Watch something else. I wish I had.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Hard Time: The Premonition
(1999 TV Movie)
I Had A Hard Time Watching The Movie
13 December 2023
Hard Time 2 is easily the worst movie Burt Reynolds made. It is the second movie in a trilogy about Burt Reynolds playing Logan Mcqueen. And the worst one of the three movies. Well honestly the first was actually okay and the third was as bad as this. Anyway. The story is just plain stupid. Bruce Dern says he can predict murders. Burt Reynolds is just out of prison and tries to solve the murders Bruce Dern says he sees happening in advance. Sounds good? It's not. It's boring and predictable and the dialogue is laughably bad. The movie isn't meant to be as funny as it is but because the dialogue is so awful you laugh at every line. Burt Reynolds looks sad and tired and like he doesn't want to be in the movie. Bruce Dern overacts as usual. Small part actors and bad guys suck. Although Charles Durning is excellent even with the bad character writing. The movie looks like the company making it had no money to spend. Also like a two year old wrote it. And directed it. And the action scenes. Really bad. Burt Reynolds said in his book that he thought the movies in this series were good. Was he on drugs? Or drunk? Or did he not see the finished movies? Any of those three options is likely. Because this film sucks. Sorry Mr Reynolds.
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