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jimigorilla2000
Reviews
Trade (2007)
European sensibility in a movie about America
The main difference between European and American movies is that American movies have an obligatory happy end. The fairytale aspect of 'living happily ever after' is usually much less obvious in European movies. This movie is on the face of it a grittily filmed cop-buddy movie, a harrowing tale of the trafficking of young girls by international networks of pedophiles, with the righteous cop accompanied by a young Mexican out to save his kidnapped sister. Although there's a tough realism to the story that is lacking from most of its counterparts, probably partly due to the subject matter. The young heroin gets rescued by her brother in the nick of time, as you'd expect, butt he actual ending is wonderfully ambiguous. In fact the final scene may be one of the strongest I have ever seen.
The Children of Huang Shi (2008)
Another free take on history
This could have been such a great movie if the makers had not taken so many liberties with a story which neither needs nor deserves it. The story of George Hogg and Rewi Alley, a communist from New Zealand, who saved 60 orphans from the ravages of the Second World War by taking them on a 1,100 km trek across mountainous terrain is truly inspirational. Why Alley, the true leader of the expedition, had to be replaced by an American nurse with a drug problem is anybody's guess. Probably to add romantic interest to the story, because just about the only thing the film makers deem interesting enough during the epic journey across the mountains is the fact the leading man and lady finally hit the sack together. When will they ever learn? Trying to sell this as a 'true' should be punishable by a fine which matches the eventual profits, DVD sales included. Other reviewers have remarked how little attention the actual children get in a movie that is called "Children of Huang Shi", so I won't go into that. All in all 3 stars for the often stunning photography.
Otis (2008)
This movie is so bad, I can't begin to describe it
It is perfectly natural for the friends and relatives of the victims of violent crime, whether state-sponsored or as a form of private enterprise, to feel a need for revenge. This movie could have offered us an interesting take on this theme, as the parents and brother of a kidnap victim decide to take 'justice' into their own hands. What this movie should have done, is explore the difference between 'justice' and 'revenge.' For a while it looks like it does, as our bad guy isn't portrayed as a total monster. The first sign that there's something wrong with the movie is the cop who's in charge of solving the case. Any cop with his lack of pr talent would have been assigned to a desk job long before he would have had the chance to trample all over the feelings of any violent crime victims. It's a character that's so improbable that it can only be viewed as a complete parody. The actor playing him looks a bit too much like Owen Wilson to take seriously, anyway. The 'act of revenge' perpetrated on the brother of the actual criminal by the family of the kidnapped girl soon deteriorates into a totally unnecessary orgy of brutal and absolutely pointless sadism which serves no purpose other than to satisfy the rather base needs of a largely uneducated audience, mostly of a pubescent and adolescent nature, I'd assume. Movies like this do not really contribute to their education either. Quite the contrary, I'd say. But then, who cares, when you can make a quick buck? It's only 'entertainment', isn't it? I suppose the intended audience is supposed to howl with laughter when the irate mother threatens to put the toes of her own helpless and by and large innocent victim in the blender. I don't really see what's so entertaining about that, although it goes a long way to explaining why many Americans, some in very high places, seem to have no problem with torturing their POW's. They have been sort of programmed by 'entertainment' like this. I do wish the kids would stop believing that something's cool just because an older person thinks it isn't. I mean, I'm an older person and I don't eat crap (as in excrement, but I couldn't use the obvious word because it's prohibited, much like this movie should be) because I don't think it's cool and I suspect it wouldn't taste good. By the logic which our youngsters apply in approving a movie like this, they would now have to start eating crap. Enjoy, kids.
Sunshine (2007)
sci-fi it's not
All the people ooh-ing and aah-ing about what a wonderful sci-fi movie this is, miss the point entirely. Sci-fi is short for science fiction, but science there isn't any in the plot. I read that they hired a physicist as an adviser. He must have been a physicist of the flat-earth type, if any of his advice has ended up in the film. This movie doesn't deserve even a single star. If it were possible, I'd give it negative stars. This is one more example of Hollywood creating its own reality. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it starts to get worrying when large segments of the hopelessly undereducated American public start to believe stuff like this, which they will, because it's about the only media exposure to "science" that they get. One might start to think it's a conspiracy to keep 'em dumb ;-)