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Reviews
Taken (2001)
Almost art
I have always wondered why some directors wouldn't go ahead and make real art out of a sexy film. For example, there is "Wild Orchid" in which Carre Otis gets it on with two guys and watches a really good sex scene between two people not really involved in the script. In Wild Orchid, three women are hot and ready to go at the appropriate time. In "Taken", after Alexandra Silk succumbs to her client's payments, it gets raunchy. Not romantic, but raunchy. Then, there is a cut from stock footage from straight porn flicks that really distracts from the art in "Taken." Now, suppose you had this kind of talent and a good script where real action occurred at the end of a romantic prelude and then they went all the way on camera so that we could see the action, not just the implication. I want to see them making love naked, but only after a reasonable amount of foreplay. This film could have made it with just a little tweaking.
I read once that the average time viewing a porn flick in a hotel was something short of ten minutes. I bet it would blow their minds to have romantic porn. Oh, well.
Babel (2006)
Second Amendment
Perhaps others had the same uneasy and creepy sweaty-palms feeling I had when those two children were let loose with a high-powered rifle. No instruction. No rules. Just kill jackals. I'll bet the NRA writes nasty letters. I owned a shotgun at ten, but I received many hours of coaching and numerous threats about hunting out of season and what not to shoot at. Regardless, the boy grew quite proficient to hit that moving target at that distance with a notch sight. That was a stretch, too.
Another thread discusses the trajectory of the bullet. Based on the appearance of the hole in the window, I think there was a mistake in the film. How did the bullet get on the left side of the bus? Seems like a boo boo to me.
Wu ji (2005)
See it only if you're sent
When I commented on the clichéd air leaping and saber rattling, my girl friend reminded me that car chases are, too, clichéd. Does it matter at all that the plot sequence is difficult to follow? I don't mind working hard to get into a captivating plot. Here, I found myself shoveling sand against the tide one more time. Ever wonder who's in charge? Many confusing themes--OK, confusing to me because I'm not willing to work that hard on this one--so, I hope the thousand extras didn't have to work for scale. I suppose that young people might find the fairy tale exciting like a video game. The actors are pretty, the scenery is pretty, the crawling slaves bring in a sadness of heart for those who still suffer that plight. When the young princess, who is too young to enter a legitimate contract, sells her soul to the devil, we know there's trouble ahead. Trouble comes. By then, I didn't care how it all came out. Sorry, princess.