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Reviews
The Untouchables (1987)
Excruciating
This is the one of the most pretentious pieces of crap I've ever seen. The Palms's medication must have run out on this one. Too bad - because he's not without talent. The heralded shootout in the train station was a sad parody of Eisenstein. How could anyone who's aware of film history think differently? Ponderously pandering and excruciating at each and every point. And the rest of the film is little more than a sad parody of Sergio Leone. A parody of a parody is sh..! Thanks to David Mamet none of these characters speaks conversational English. Heavy handed, heavy footed and painfully inept. I'm only going on because I need a minimum of ten lines to complete this review. If it wasn't for that it would only take one word to sum up this film - and it starts with s and ends with t.
La vie de bohème (1992)
Down & Out & Deadpan in Paris
I wondered why I was actually laughing at a French film until I realized it was made by Finns. Reminded me a lot of Buster Keaton, except that the pratfalls are mostly cerebral. Deadpan comedy with style. The black dog was the Finnish Rin-Tin-Tin. I hope he got a nice bone for his efforts.
Agantuk (1991)
Sublime!
Simple and eloquent. The Stranger may be too charming for many of today's hipsters. A bit corny perhaps, but corn tastes great when it's cooked properly. The acting alone is worth the price of admission. If this was Ray's swan song, I'm sure he's resting in peace. Bravo, maestro!
The World of Henry Orient (1964)
A Stylish Delight!
Who writes screenplays like this anymore? The dialogue between the two young, naive and wildly imaginative girls was so apt that my face almost got tired from smiling. Obviously, father and daughter screenwriters Nora and Nunnally Johnson had the time and took care to get it all just right. The direction could hardly have been better, particularly with the two highly-talented young actresses (who seem to have since disappeared from the screen), but above all else, the cinematography was brilliant. The director and cinematographer unleashed an entire arsenal of corny 60's cinematic devices (the camera swivelling upside down, a lyrical romp through the city streets, slow motion and speeded up bits, etc.) but pulled them off so well that corn never tasted so delicious. Also, the frequently unusual camera placement, for instance, bringing the camera almost down to ground level for many of the scenes between the young girls lent an unlikely, but totally convincing perspective to the story. I went to the theater expecting to see a Peter Seller's film, and while he is brilliant in this role, this turned out to be so much more than merely a vehicle for Seller's comedic gifts. So many of the other reviewers in this thread seem to have interpreted this film through the prism of their own experiences. Obviously the story hit home, but they're missing the point - this was film-making at its finest!
Adaptation. (2002)
Bring on the gators!
Scribe Kaufman dipped his mouse into his deep well of narcissism and dredged up a twin brother. What a treat for all the Malkovicians in the audience - a double dose of self-loathing! That anyone would find the money or time to waste on such obsessive self-absorption is a sad comment on our times.
Although the direction and acting are frequently brilliant, watching such talent twist and turn on the agonizingly slender thread of a plot about a writer who's trying to learn how to "adapt" to the remote possibility of a world outside of his own concave mirror is excruciating. However, to his everlasting credit, Kaufman does flesh out his plot with some alligators-ex-machinas to tidy things up. Too bad he didn't bring on the gators earlier, preferably before the cameras started rolling.
8 and 1/2 was made by an artist who had already proven at least seven times over that he had something to say about a life other than his own. Sorry, Charlie - you're no Fellini. This over-hyped exercise in Screen Writing 101 (or was this 102?) deserves a gilded styrofoam "Quentin" - the Tarantino Award for the triumph of style over substance.