dave54t Reviews

Inside Out (I) (2011)

you know what? not that bad. not bad at all

[10 November 2011]

I saw the movie without reading the reviews, and I must tell you- I found my self interested. no big surprises in the story line, but it was good story, one you can follow with some interest. the acting, surprisingly, was more than reasonable, even if our hero was a wrestler. good thing, the story line is not based on that fact. the action is moderate but still is there. sometimes you get actual violence, sometime it is implied, but things work well. I don't agree with the other reviews, blasting so hard against this movie. it is not a waste of your time- but to the contrary. Wouldn't leave everything I'm doing for this piece, but once you got some free time, watching it is a good way to spend about 90 minutes. You can watch it and enjoy.

Shutter Island (2010)

what was the problem with this film?

[8/10 · 16 May 2011]

On its face, this film has all the right ingredients: great cast, the acting was superb, the story well told, there is a twist which i did not see coming- and still, when it was over, I felt as if something was missing. I saw it few times, and the feeling that something was missing did not go away. so what was it? and then, two nights ago, when I saw part of it, again, it struck me: the twist did not make things that happened throughout the film- sensible. let me explain: the sixth sense told a story that was engaging and well played. and then came the twist, and you said: woo... right!!! that explains! and seeing it the second time, things that in the first time went unnoticed, made so much sense now... all of the sudden you saw things that you did not really pay attention to when you saw it for the first time. Knowing the twist just added to the pleasure when you watch it again. That component is missing from Shutter Island. Nothing throughout the story evolves from the twist (when you watch it again), and the twist shed no new light on the events that took place up to that moment. The twist doesn't give new meaning to scenes played before it. on the contrary- the script up to the twist aim to confuse you and to make you think that you see the real thing. and when you see (watching it the second time) the cop that turned out to be something else, you don't see him differently. he is still the same cop that will turn out to be... something else. So while the twist does give different meaning to the story, it has no real depth. But nonetheless, it is a very good film, and you do want to see it.

Black Swan (2010)

terrible story teller

[3/10 · 24 March 2011]

Black Swan is the story of a young ballet dancer promoted to the role of the ballerina and the way she and her companions deal with her move from being a member of the group to the prime role. To perform her role, she needs to have the kind of passion that apparently, she doesn't have, or at least not enough. The story is hence a story of transformation: how a fragile, restrained naive girl turns into a passionate beast. The team that carries the movie on its shoulders is remarkable. From Natalie Portman to the sexy and provocative Mila Kunis, and the surprising up- to-now action actor, Vincent Cassel, who is doing great job. what prevents this film from becoming a good film is the story. the short version: the story sucks. the long version: first, it is boring. really. simply boring. second, and not unrelated, it takes talent to convince your audience that what they see is actually something completely different. The sixth sense is like that. While the story line here is completely different, still, things happen here and then - surprise- it is not like that! the scriptwriter did not even try to pretend. you see something and then ha-ha- no, it is something different! why? how? who? never mind! really shame.

Battle Los Angeles (2011)

missing no cliché, not a single one

[1/10 · 17 March 2011]

"we got to be braves", tells the rough-from-the-outside and soft-in-the- inside staff Sergent to the sobbing kid, "because marines don't cry!". and this is not the heaviest piece of cliché you'll find here. reminds me a guy I knew who, when driving, would miss no bump on the road. once he did, so he got back, and stepped over it. so is this movie- missing not a single cliché known in the thesaurus of movie-clichés. not a single one. and it this spirit, the cliché would not be only the text. it is the people, too. one-dimensional characters, each of them the arch-type of characters you saw in so many B flicks. and the story line! let me put it this way: drinking tea with 10 spoons of sugar is less saccharine than this one. in short, see it only if you saw no movie in the last two decades and you are ready to swallow anything, literally anything, and even than, only when you are half conscious.

Faster (2010)

Hey! It was not bad at all!!!

[7/10 · 3 February 2011]

I like very much action movies. All day long I use every usable cell of my brain, and when evening comes all I want is to watch a good action flick. I have my limits, though. There should be SOMETHING in it, even if very little. Give me Total Recall- i'm the happiest man on land. Transporter (1, 2, 3) - you made my day. You got the idea. Give me the Marine- I'll go after few minutes to do something less painful- cutting my fingers for example. So when I saw Faster, I came with very low expectations. The Rock was, well, bearable. Not high class but bearable. Walking Tall? fine. No cell in my brain need to come back from vacation. So when I bumped into this one, I planned to spend another evening with no brain damage on the one hand, and no labor to my tired cells, on the other hand. But hey- it was pretty good! packed with action, good actors, Dwayne Johnson, whose spectrum of emotion expression spread all over the range from 1 to 2 did his job... well, properly. So yes, it was fun to watch. The script will not send its author to LA in March, but it was... well, reasonable, for this type of flick. The supporting actors did pretty good job, giving this B movie flick an aura of something a bit better. In short, if you look spending 1 hour and 40 minutes of your life not saving humanity, watching this one is not bad alternative.