Change Your Image
BenTrova
Reviews
Hannibal: Naka-Choko (2014)
Leaves behind any semblance of reality
Now Will Graham is a true killer who hides his crime(s) and rather than being appalled by vicious acts and cannibalism he at least emulates these to curry favor with Lecter. The premises of the Thomas Harris story have been vacated. The traits of the characters are blended and reformed. Jack Crawford is taken again and again as a dupe. There is no one fighting for a positive good any longer. Every scene has a 50% chance of being an irrelevant artsy dream, typically centered on an unappetizing obsession with animal-based foods. They should circulate a want ad for an new and actual hero.
Let them be vegan!
Man v. Food (2008)
Appalling, Sick, S.A.D. - An Environmental and Humane Disaster
You can watch your grandparents and parents die of "food-born" illnesses, like cardio-vascular disease and common cancers, twenty and forty years before they are due. You can see close relatives, friends and co-workers get heavier, sicker, less-capable, less productive -- less happy -- year by year. You can understand that upwards of 80% of the agricultural production in the western world goes to feed animals to produce the foods consumed as shown so wastefully in the behavior glorified in these shows. Know that those animals live as in Auschwitz every day of their lives and that the same plant food, calorie by calorie as is fed to them would be enough to adequately feed the rest of the human world maybe several times over. Understand that morbid obesity and type-2 diabetes are now problems for young children.
I have no problem with say, nudity or vulgar language in art, it harms no one and depending on presentation, you like it or you don't, no problem. I cannot understand the rational disconnect and hypocrisy that allows the conduct and mindset of this show to be anything less than shockingly obscene. I understand this program's average rating is 7.8 on IMDb and that it has been running for at least five seasons. Take care people.
Five Days One Summer (1982)
A realistic romance, subtle not slow.
Did you ever hear little girls dream out loud, "When I grow up I'm going to marry a man like...."? Well young Kate's ideal man is her older uncle Douglas, an accomplished physician and world traveller, a charming and humbly commanding figure filled out well by Sean Connery. But like returning to a large room in which she was small, Ms. Brantley's character can now see that her uncle is also aging, balding, lonely and lecherous when she succumbs to going away with him on a short holiday to the alps, pretending to be his wife. She is trying to make real her little girls' dream. It is appropriate and true that their romance doesn't quite work out.
The theme is lovers separated by time; as wonderfully illustrated by the metaphor of the bridegroom trapped for forty years, ageless in a glacier, while his bride waits for him. Only the spirit of the lovers can remain perfect and beyond time. This, like all actions in the story, the camera lets the viewer discover for him/herself. The alpine scenery is superb. No car chases.
Damage (1992)
Don't believe it for a minute.
Cold weather, cold people. Juliette Binoche dressed in black for the English winter looks like a bug. Jeremy Irons making love to someone he would destroy his family to possess pounds her head hurtfully on the floor. Their coupling is so cold it should be in an igloo -- all except for the last scene where Fleming's son Martyn walks in. So passion only exists when everything is to be lost??? And Jerry Lewis is a profound existentialist. Miranda Richardson berating her guilty husband shows us her chest. Ain't gonna get these anymore, boyo, but Mr. Malle will certainly exploit the image. The admirable Mr. Irons can't even talk to his kids; they'd rather watch TV than listen to anything a government minister has to say. (But I don't think the irony was intended!) Flat characters. No insight. No motivation. What the hell is Ms. Binoche's character supposed to be thinking? Women like this story for the same reason men like Unbearable Lightness of Being; the protagonist has two lovers -- double the attention, double the love/sex -- but she/he isn't required to care too much for either one. There's no one to like in this film.
Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (1974)
Recipe for Love...
The operating truth of this film is that people over-react to what they perceive as their social environment. Locked into a larger order, either high or low, nobody is satisfied. Either you can't pay worthless servants to make pasta al-dente, or you're stuck earning a living re-heating other people's coffee. When the larger social order is removed, people go nuts until they can create one of their own; so that the order they make feeds on that dementia and the microcosm is as crazy as the larger order that spawned its members. Smack a girl around, make her sleep rough, make her work for birds eggs and raw fish till she calls you "master." Sounds like a recipe for true love. Strange that she leaves you to go back to a world of yachts and helicopters, over-cooked spaghetti, re-heated coffee.
The Shooting Party (1984)
For those who don't mind a little message with their movie:
Banal carnage. A nice allegory, just as a game keeper raises birds for sport so a social order, a decaying aristocracy, breeds masses for war. Trouble is these particular aristocrats ARE actually as boring as they are bored, and waiting around the whole film for the last minute is slightly tedious. A nap before tea is recommended. The atmosphere is perfect. Gielgud is great as an eccentric caricature -- when will a vegetarian be portrayed as anything but a looney in a movie? Mason is perfect as the button-down aristo so shocked that his shooting party should result in human death, so close to death himself. Is the movie too weighty from all the irony? I liked it, 7 out of ten.
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)
Underrated...
The complete lack of any modern language helps enormously. Lots of pantomime and tasteful eye-candy for both sexes. The people are very athletic and attractive. Their movement over vast location sets is an impressive work-out. Never dawdles. Very good photography and effects -- for the time, well integrated. Not a low-budget hack-up job. More plausible than any opera I've seen; kinda like a ballet without a consistent musical score.