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lcarlo123
Reviews
Dogma (1999)
good, funny, theologically repetitvie
Dogma makes a very clever and funny mockery of the Christian faith, mostly the Roman Catholic denomination. Theology is taken as literal as possible in order to make an entertaining story blend well with a random ara of characters. Bethany Stone (Linda Fiorentino, in what is not one of her better performances)is raised Catholic who now questions her faith as she leads a very routine and mundane life at an abortion clinic. She is given the task to stop misguided angels, Loki and Bartelby (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) from entering a church thus having their sins forgiven and all of existence abolished. Bethany is assisted by Jay and Silent Bob, Rufus (Chris Rock) and Serendipity (Salma Hayek). All of these characters have their own outlook and opinions of God and the Bible. Theology is jam packed into this movie in a very clever way, however, it is jam packed to the extent that it becomes repetitive and uninteresting and the humor of it all ends very quickly. Overall, this is a good movie, one of Kevin Smith's best. A smart story that is very well written makes up for the poor acting throughout by a majority of the cast.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
good
Revenge of the Sith opens with a spectacular light show that looks similar to any video game that takes place in the outer galaxies. This precedes a great story. George Lucas makes it clear that his previous two Star Wars films were flukes for lack of a better term and that he can still tell a story. He also made it clear that he is a bit too in love with the special effects of our time. He over uses them just as much in Revenge of the Sith as he does in the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. This diminishes the intensity of the climactic scene at the end with Obi Won and Anikan and it is also, simply, a distraction. The dialouge in the film is horribly written and the acting isn't much better but putting those flaws aside, the alleged final installment of the Star Wars Saga is a great movie. Anikan's transformation into Darth Vader is the ultimate highlight. The surprise of the film however was the amazing performance by Ian McDiarmid as The Chancellor. He was convincing in every way and perfected every scene he was in. 3 1/2 of 5 stars
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
such a disappointment
The struggle in making an historical epic film within the past two years, or should I say, in the post-Lord of the Rings era, is not going well. It didn't go well for Oliver Stone, Wolfgang Peterson or Antoine Fuqua, but going into Kingdom of Heaven I only assumed that Ridley Scott wouldn't fail. I was wrong. Kingdom of Heaven is, as of this point, the most disappointing film of 2005. The story lacked structure and direction. The characters lacked depth and points of interest. The performances were relatively sub-par and ultimately, the battle scenes were no longer cool. Ridley Scott did make an effort however to make his epic battles original. He went with a similar approach as did Martin Scorsese in Gangs of New York's opening battle, with slow motion attacks and stress on characters emotions. Unfortunately, these characters emotions didn't help me as an audience member care about them or even understand what they were fighting for. The film takes place in the midst of the Crusades. My background knowledge of this era is slim, however there is very little guidance throughout the story to enlighten viewers such as myself. Balain (Orlando Bloom) is but a blacksmith until his father, Lord Godfrey, a famous and respected Crusader (Liam Neeson) rides in, knights him and gives him his oath to protect the helpless and so on and so forth, really a bunch of blather that was supposed to be inspirational. Upon becoming a knight, Balain is instantly a strategic genius. Somewhere and somehow, from when he was a blacksmith to when he became a knight some two days later, he knew everything about battle, not to mention, only hours after he decided to go along with his father and only minutes after he was taught how to fight correctly, he was one of the few who lived through an ambush. Balain's honor and respect for his opposition gained him respect within his realm of people. This honor and respect, however came out of no where. His character was, put simply, quite boring. He really showed no emotion towards anything and on top of that, Orlando Bloom can't act. Put less bluntly, Bloom doesn't fit the character, just as he doesn't fit any of the characters he ever plays. How he continues to get these roles is beyond my knowledge. Overall, Kingdom of Heaven had its entertaining parts but it was so disappointing and on occasion, boring that I can't help but say I didn't like it.
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
a real rarity for Woody Allen
I found this film a real rarity for Woody Allen. I felt it was poorly written. It attempted to make connections throughout about the real world and the world on the screen. Those attempts were evident, but those attempts were unsuccessful. Once I put aside the pure ridiculousness of Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) walking off the screen into the 1930's of the real world, the idea of the film seemed somewhat clever. There was no easy way to make it happen so once that was done, this film had it opportunities to be good. Jeff Daniels didn't help its cause as he continued to turn in, what is in my opinion, a terrible performance. It was essential for him to differentiate between his fictional character in Tom Baxter and his real life character, Gil Shepard, who plays Baxter. Daniels is not a good enough actor to pull this off, while at the same time delivering those subtle lines suggesting the differences and, more importantly, similarities of real life and movie life. Woody Allen is always capable of bringing his random and unique humor to his movies however; in this case, my laughs were few and far between. The bright parts of the film were the performances of Mia Farrow who played the shy, somewhat nervous and confused Cecelia who gets wrapped up in a love triangle with Gil and Tom while she is trying to better her life during the depression all while she is toughing her way through her marriage to Monk, played very well by Danny Aiello. Ultimately the film was a bit over the top and ridiculous and regardless of the performances, I'm not sure this script had much of a chance.
Oldeuboi (2003)
disturbing but very good
Oldboy made you ask "why?" Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi) was imprisoned for 15 years. Why? We don't know. Neither does he. Upon his release, he seeks revenge, that is until he realizes that he needs to first find out why he was imprisoned for all those years. Choi's performance is fantastic. He forces you to want to know why as well. You connect with his suffering, you understand why he wants revenge but even more so, understand why he needs to know why. When he finally finds out, the film becomes disturbing and at first seemed like a weak climax. Upon putting the pieces together, however, I realized that each detail was accounted for. Every subtle aspect was relevant to the answer of the question. This is what made it a good movie. For the majority of the film, I became frustrated with the lack of answers I was being given. Much seemed to be leading nowhere and I feared that the creators got themselves in too deep and wouldn't be able to find a smart way out of it. Fortunately, the end was great. The disturbing aspect of it was off-putting; however, it tied in so well that I don't think it hurt the movie. The movie is very violent and even on occasion, hard to watch. This is part of what allows the audience to really get involved. You can understand the characters pain and anguish. This is always a good quality in a movie and is, along with a smart story, what makes this movie a good one.
Sin City (2005)
Sin City is a very good movie
Regardless of who is credited as the director, Quentin Tarantino had his name written all over Sin City. Not only did it have the blood spewing violence similar to that in Kill Bill but it had stories starting and ending at different points then coming back later in the film just like Pulp Fiction. What kept this film from becoming great was its failure to make connections with each story the way that Pulp Fiction did. Had it done this, I would be talking Oscars. Instead, I'm reviewing a very good movie. Despite the long list of great actors that were in this movie, none of them turned in great performances, in fact none of them were even that good. Interestingly enough, however, due to the nature of this film, good acting was totally unnecessary. The movie was made in such a way that it felt like the actors were just reading the captions of a comic book to us. Unlike Spiderman and all the other comic book movies lately, Sin City was truly a comic book that came to life. Nearly every character's thoughts were portrayed through voice over which in a lot of cases can be considered an easy way out, in this case, it works perfectly. I'd be doing the film a disservice if I didn't comment on how artistic it is. It is clear cut, black and white which colored eyes and red blood. This alone could attract an audience but this film is much more than good looks.
Hustle (2004)
Not good
What a shame. This is a great story about a great baseball player and this movie couldn't have been worse. Let's start with the acting. It was a pile of junk. If Tom Sizemore ever turns in a worse performance he should quit acting and take up ballet. This film was horribly written, terribly directed. It was all over the place. This is supposed to be the story about Pete Rose who gambled on baseball which kept him out of the hall of fame even though he holds the record for the most career hits but this was all about drug scandals. I wish I could provide viewers of this film with some sort of reparations. Its stupid, boring and pathetic. Do yourself a favor, never see this movie.
0 stars, no thumbs up
Closer (2004)
Quickly becoming the most overrated film of the year
Closer (Spoilers) Clive Owen, Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman turn in great performances in this silver screen soap opera. Those performances are perhaps the one upside of this film. They each play deceptive lovers who never change and never arouse emotion for the viewer. They are, put simply, unlikable characters. This, however, is precisely the point. We are not supposed to like these characters, however we begin not liking them and we end not liking them.
The writing is very good in this film, however, the story is not. There are far too many aspects to suggest how deceptive these characters are. They go back and forth between lovers not one too many, but just way too many times. Its a simple conflict that we are forced to endure several times throughout the film. Natalie Portman's character has a different look all the time, not to mention her fake name, suggesting once again, that she is a liar. (As if we didn't already know that about her from the rest of the film) I hate to suggest that this film is an excuse for beautiful people to talk dirty to each other but it seems that 2/3s of the film is just that. While we never see any of the sex that goes on, we hear plenty about it.
The relationships in this movie are so clearly love/hate. This could have been very easily taken in the right direction, which may have been that they all want the same thing but can't get it because of their lies, however it skews in so many other directions along the way that it is simply a mess.
It is not a bad film, in other words, I was never tempted to walk out. It was entertaining enough to keep me there to the end, however when the end came I was not rewarded. There are no redeeming values, not character changes and no conflicts other than the one presented to us over and over again.
2/5
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Truly, the greatest film ever made
Upon seeing The Shawshank Redemption, I realized that a movie can be so good and so powerful that it can keep you in awe for a long time. I saw Shawshank years ago and have probably seen it fifty times since then and not once have I been bored or uninterested. I have been blown away by this movie since the first time that I saw it. There is truly no movie better that The Shawshank Redemption. There is no better story and there is certainly no better theme. Redemption, hope and friendship have been displayed in the finest form leaving you filled with the two former. Truly, the greatest film ever made.
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
horrible
This movie was, without a doubt, one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I don't even want to get into how bad Harrison Ford's attempt at a Russian accent was. Even worse than that, however, was the story. Not until there was only an hour or so remaining in this two and a half hour sleeper did anyone understand what was going on. The attempted suspense scenes failed massively becuase nobody knows what the "mission" is. Everything goes wrong, I mean everything. I will admit that I don't know the story behind the movie but I can be 90% sure some of the things that happened in the movie never actually happened. I would recomend running away if you ever have a chance to see this movie. It is definately not worth your money or your time.