elliotff Reviews

Blood of Beasts (2005)

Small budget used well

[6/10 · 2 February 2007]

Jane March at age 30 is no Viking teenage princess.The hair was bad. the CG flames were bad. The speech was nowhere near Scandinavia. The end was less than completely satisfying. But I'm glad to have seen this film. Jane March is a beautiful actress, and some of her scenes were fine ("And yet you live!"). The rest of the cast, the Beast, the story...not superb, not amazing, not surprising. And yet, more than just satisfactory. The Beauty and the Beast story is a healthy perennial, and this has some interesting variations thereon. I got this as a Netflix rental, and I was pleased enough to share it with my family and watch it a second time. Worth watching, not a disgrace to the actors, directors, film-makers. Good costumes, not disgusting, a quirky production. Loved the musical score. Solid workmanship with some charm.

Hard Candy (2005)

Intense, dramatic, uncomfortable

[9/10 · 2 December 2006]

Very intense Ellen Page,fine Patrick Wilson, direction and cinematography very compelling. Emotionally draining, though with more suggestion than on-screen violence. I agree with some comments about the girl Hayley being unlikely to be as articulate and controlling as the character is written, but there are exceptionally bright and motivated teenagers. And the final scenes are a little cracked in rhythm and motivation, to my mind. But the performances are astounding, the art direction and camera work and lighting are perfect. The extras on the DVD are good, too. The actors' commentary not bad, the director's commentary excellent, the featurettes top-notch. It surely is not a date movie; it might be classed as a horror film, though not in the cheesy occult mode. It is one of the best-made shoestring dramas on film I've seen.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Long and saccharine

[4/10 · 18 September 2004]

This bloated and soggy piece of work is so far from earning a number 2 spot on the IMDb that I have to imagine that Stephen King has bought votes for it. Trite , mawkish, shallow, unconvincing, ugly... How much more can I say about its awfulness? Morgan Freeman is tolerable, Tim Robbins is not. There is a romantic glow to the cinematography that is really inappropriate if the main characters are heterosexual. If they aren't there is an unexplored subtext poisoning the base of the movie. There is nothing else about this movie that makes a lick of sense: emotional, dramatic, logical, racial, penological. Rips off the Count of Monte Cristo and Huckleberry Finn and cheapens and flattens them. Its appeal escapes me utterly. For the love of God, sink this film!

Fight Club (1999)

Sophomoric

[2/10 · 3 August 2004]

I cannot believe the number of rabid fans this sophomoric self-indulgent piece of watered down Nietzsche crossed with Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf has garnered. If this film was a life-changing experience for some of the reviewers I am wrung with pity at what that life must have been before, and with the thought of what it can have become.

There was some amusing satire in here, but you had to wade through a lot of adolescent posing and prosing to hear it.

I am commenting only because I think this tawdry junker needs a counterpoint to its unmerited adulation. If you found a lot in this movie and want to watch it again and again to validate your deep philosophical and artistic insights, you need to broaden your horizons. Grow up and join the real world. Ask for more from your art than this.