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Reviews
Lost: Something Nice Back Home (2008)
Way below the level of previous episodes
It is plain annoying, when scriptwriters make actors build up tension without cause. If Jack proposes to Kate and Kate is overwhelmingly happy about that, then there is no good reason for them to mistrust each other 100% and not tell each other _anything_. Just to build up misunderstandings and tension. And if Sawyer thinks Miles is evil, and keeps threatening his live, then he wouldn't sleep like a baby next to him. This is bad storytelling.
There is grounds enough for real tension in the story, the writers wouldn't need to fake it. Noise like that has distorted the otherwise great signal before, this time is got really bad. I hope they cut that crap in future episodes.
Cube (1997)
Splendid concepts, but spoiled by cheap tricks to push the paranoia
The movie has some splendid ideas and interesting concepts. But I disliked how they made characters behave plain unreasonably or their moves incredible at several points in the film - just to push the paranoia. Cheap move for cheap effects. If not for that, I would have ranked it pretty high.
The film has a couple of strong points. Kafkaesque feeling all through, but it would have done well to stay closer to Kafka and not go for cheap splatter and horror elements. I think it would have made a better movie without that crap.
It is amazing though, how much of a movie you can make with very little.
Blade Runner (1982)
Many qualities - above all it makes you think
English is not my first language, so bear with me.
I guess the overall quality of "Blade Runner" is intelligence. It is a movie that makes you think and it is made by thinking individuals. It tells you not to trust the surface, and this is always a bold thing to do for a movie - given that it is, by definition, composed of surface only.
The cast is perfect, Rudger Hauer as the leader of a group of "replicants" (androids) and Harrison Ford as "blade runner" Rick Deckard, charged to hunt them down, above all others.
Daryl Hannah really is her part - a desperate replicant, while Sean Young as Rachael, the female attraction for Harrison Ford played her extremely interesting role well enough, but is still the weakest link in the chain in my opinion. Ford has subsequently played many inferior roles in movies. In this one he is the right character and he's - ever trying to be sure of himself, while being corroded by doubts - brilliant.
What's also special about the movie is the atmosphere. Ridley Scott didn't get to use computer generated special effects back in 1982. Flying cars were not easily put on celluloid. Don't expect an orgy of special effects, that's not the focus of this movie. There is a lot of action going on but it focuses on people, not explosions. In spite of some minor logical glitches Scott manages to compose a credible scenario, a sinister vision of a might-be-future with a few subtle flashes of dark humor. On a side note: you might want to stock up on umbrellas before 2019, according to Ridley Scott we are in for rain.
Of course the movie would not rank among the best movies without the soundtrack by Vangelis, which is a masterpiece by itself. Together photography and music form something exceptional.
Unlike with many inferior sci-fi movies, there is more to "Blade Runner" than just atmosphere, special effects and a great sound track. The movie makes you think about some of the big philosophical questions concerning the individual as well as society. What is life? What's special about humans? Why is one life worth more than another? How shall we deal with death? And what's the role of society in all of this?
The movie - especially the director's cut - does not try to answer or appease in the end. All it tells us is that we can't get away from these questions, no matter where we go, be it to an "off-world colony" or just "north".
"Blade Runner" is the best film of its kind and one of the best I know overall. This one should not be "lost in time like tears in the rain" so quickly.