Change Your Image
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Reviews
The Thief (1952)
the power of image
This movie really shows how powerful and captivating can the image be. I don't understand why this movie is seldom mentioned for the big public. Nobody has doubts that Casablanca or Citizen Kane or so many others are great movies, but this movie can also be enjoyed by many people and means something very innovative at the moment it was shot. I got astonished when, after 20 minutes I hadn't heard any voice; I didn't know in advance that the movie had no dialogues. However, the story was intriguing enough and the situations had so much suspense that I watched it without missing dialogues. Of course, the spies were communists and it's a produce of the cold war time, but this fact does not impact on the quality of the script. Ray Milland was an actor so remarkable that his acting makes the film believable. He shows the anguish and fear of a man who is doing something very grave (treason) and is being shadowed. He was so good actor that at the end of the movie, when he's about to go aboard, one can read his mind and guess his final decision. After all, he is not a crook or a murderer, but rather a man of science and not violent, so, the reasons that lead him to the final decision have to do with his conscience (an innocent man is being accused of something that he did and another man was killed by him) The cinematography is superb, I enjoyed specially the way it shows the streets and buildings of the cities. The script is subtle and full of brilliant details. The music is very good and well sync. Really a masterwork. Maybe the long silent scenes that Jean-Pierre Melville or Jules Dassin had in their movies could've been inspired by this film? Very recommended.
The Delivery (1999)
A ruined movie
I hired this movie thinking that I'd find a good Europen thriller. With the ingredients the movie had I expected a more decent movie. However, right from the start, the first incident with the van is confusing (you don't understand what is the content of the load that is burnt, you don't understand why the driver is stupid and, why are two vehicles necessary to carry that load) Right after you learn that the guys have a 1000 euros problem, not so much so as to decide to pass by so many risks.
The geography is funny and they go from Netherlands to Belgium and later to France (by the way, the way to save the France border is appalling; if I were French I'd complain as being taken as a moron)and they go to a club in Paris to sell the pills to obtain weapons that, being a bad trade are useless. Then, they decide to go far from there to get a shotgun. Really, the characters were three idiots. And, when I gave up is when the sexual scene of the girl with the British guy start. It looked as if that time had to be filled someway.
All this just for paying 1000 euros and a girl as a hostage and with a threesome of morons leading the film. I think that any filmmaker could've done something more decent. This is a botch.
Shoot Out (1971)
A sweet surprise
I have recently watched this movie. I didn't expect so much according to previous readings about the movie. Right on the contrary, it is one of the best westerns I have ever seen. Evil is shown in a raw way. The acting is great, outstanding the acting of Robert F. Lyons as psycho villain. The whole sequence at the house of the alcoholic mother with a son is full of suspense and thrill. The movie is unpredictable, giving surprises about what will happen next; it deceived me twice at least. I recommend to watch it to anyone who loves good western and good movies in general. It shows a great deal of cruelty and fair revenge. Yet it is not perfect. Some characters, like Pepe, are too stupid or naive, somewhat overacted; I think that some more realism could've been given to this role. The sequence among the horses in the meadow is a real good moment, with excellent photograph and movement.
Deadline at Dawn (1946)
Good dialogues and details.
I have watched this movie recently. The movie has interesting assets: good performance by the whole cast, specially Susan Hayward and Paul Lukas; some brilliant dialogue moments (the rhyming of June and moon, the descriptions of New Yorkers and their life style or "somebody's father has to be a mortician"); surprising characters like the cabby who takes Hayward on the first ride to lamed blonde's house. Photography is excellent, really good. A special moment is the start of the movie (a fly annoying the sleepy drunk woman or the walk of Hayward and Williams in front of the police station when approaching to the murdered woman's apartment and many more)
Naiveness of the characters is purposely planned, of course. However, one thing is to use it as a resource to show other concepts (honesty, frustrations, wickedness and so on) and another matter is the overuse of naiveness. Whoever appears in the film, introduces him/herself with first and second name and even profession in some cases, being a corpse in the middle. They rely all on all with not much sense.
The end of the question "who killed the woman?" is unraveled in a really forced way. It's a surprise, but after putting on stage "artificially" the married couple that, intuitively was chased by Hayward. Some more effort to make a more solid plot would have been appreciated. Too much intuition for everything.
The film is too naive so as to be considered an unrated film-noir. It is even too naive so as to consider it a film-noir.
I insist, anyway, that it is not a bad movie at all. It's enjoyable to watch the performance and all the things I told at the start, but the script, although it has remarkable moments, makes the result unbalanced due to a lack plot consistency and too many coincidences.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
The novel wasn't good and the film is worse
The script of this film is very bad. At least the novel made an effort to give sense to his reasons to kill, but the film poorly explains it. The execution sequences look like a paroxysm in Woodstock and the sequences of the killer's end look like the Dracula slaves wishing their master. Well, except the photography and the atmosphere of how life could be back in XVIII century, this film is a real botched script and content. The film could've taken more advantage of the most interesting moment of the film, at least it could've tried to transmit the sensation of smelling, when both the protagonist and the veteran perfumer meet. But even though the good performance of Dustin Hoffman, the film cannot stand up.