johnbrophy81 Reviews

New World Order (2009)

Film about conspiracy theorists, not by conspiracy theorists

[8/10 · 30 October 2009]

I've been reading the board for this documentary, and I really think a lot of people have it wrong.

To me, this is a great documentary. People who are trying to argue one side or the other of the conspiracy theory, using this film as justification, are just plain looking at it the wrong way. This is about people. It's not meant to enlighten the viewer on the details of any of these theories. In fact, one thing I noticed quite a bit was how details of the actual beliefs of these people are mostly left out. Of course we hear them yell at protests, and talk about their beliefs, but this is more about understanding the person.

We get the stories of several different people: how they started with their current beliefs, how it's changed their lives, how their daily lives are occupied with this stuff. In the end, it all ties together.

At the end of it all, I personally see this as a film showing us how these are all real people who, while possibly misguided, are not genuinely crazy (the exception possibly being Jones, even though you end up feeling bad for him in a way). These are just people who ended up on the path they're on for one reason or another, like we all do.

I think that anyone who can watch this objectively will enjoy it. Don't let yourself get caught up in whether or not 9/11 was a conspiracy or how evil the Bildergerg Group is. This is a study of people... of a very particular culture of people, but people nonetheless.

Noise (II) (2007)

Pretentious and contrived....

[4/10 · 18 January 2009]

I've been using IMDb for a few years now, but have never written any reviews before. However, this movie so disappointed me (even with a modest score of 6.4 at the time of writing) that I couldn't keep quiet anymore.

Noise is the story of a New Yorker (Tim Robbins)who is so perturbed by noise pollution that he takes on an alter-ego as a as a vigilante, "The Rectifier", and vandalizes any cars he finds with a car-alarm sounding.

I take the name of the movie to be somewhat of a misnomer. Although there are one or two instances of other sources of noise being addressed or mentioned, the only true focus of our protagonist is car alarms. Car alarms, car alarms, car alarms. There is really no other focus. When the movie tries to tie other examples of noise pollution to the problem of car alarms, it seems to be just thrown in to give merit to the actions of Robbins' character.

Yes, we're all annoyed by noise. Nobody likes the sound of car alarms. Of course we all have that internal urge to take a baseball bat to a shrieking vehicle, and this movie uses that fact, and pretty much that fact alone, to sell this movie. I say 'pretty much' because there is also a blatantly contrived sexual relationship (including a completely needless threesome) which is obviously thrown in for those movie-goers who need such things thrown in in order to enjoy a movie. Honestly, it's eye-rolling.

Robbin's character, very shortly into the movie, becomes completely unrelatable. It seems less that he decides not to put up with the noise anymore, and more that by focusing so much on the noise he has begun to lose his sanity. The first half of the movie is essentially the story of how he turns from just an angry, car-bashing dude into this hero of the little guy, The Rectifier. However... the transformation doesn't take place. He just renames himself.

I could go on for a while. Annoying generalized social commentary comes in every now and then to add to the pretentiousness of the movie, and the self-satisfied smirk which never quite leaves Robbins face doesn't help either.

Overall, I think it's very obvious what this movie is trying to be, as it's pretty much shoved down your throat, but in my opinion, it fails in a big way. Just one guy's opinion, cheers.