Change Your Image
bimsie99
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Satire As Subtle As A Flying Mallet
This is a great example of how time can create a mass consensus.We don't watch films like The Godfather,Citizen Kane,or Schindlers List and decide for ourselves what we think of them.Its just predetermined that these films are classics and above the normal critical process.
A Clockwork Orange is the case in front of us here.First there is the bravura technical skill of the film.Lets talk about it.Kubrick is in complete command here.Every extended tracking shot,every perfectly composed frame,every close up,every piece of music in a scene is exactly as the director intended it to be.Few filmmakers ever could create as singular a vision as Stanley Kubrick does in almost every film he made.
The problem here is the unwillingness of Kubrick to allow the audience to think for itself or come to a conclusion about anything in the film without shouting it from the rooftop,and shoving our face in it,again,and again and again.Yes,the film is brutal satire.We aren't meant to sympathize with Alex.We aren't meant to sympathize with anyone in the film.And this is hammered home to us continually,with extreme closeups of bulging eyes and faces shaking as if from palsy.We cant let the audience figure out for themselves what the tone and point of view of a scene is.We must let them know beyond the shadow of a doubt.A perfect example of this is when Alex is carried into the house of the man he had brutalized years before,whose wife he had raped while singing "Singing In The Rain".The man doesn't make the connection about who he is,until Alex is taking a bath,and starts singing the song again.Five seconds of this,and a quick reaction shot of the victim would have told you all you needed to know.But no,the song goes on for at least two minutes,and the man starts getting the bulging eyes and uncontrollable shaking.This whole thing extends to the next scene where the man is watching Alex eat.And it goes on forever,with no new information being given to us.
As I stated at the beginning,this film is the recipient of reflexive acknowledged classic status.I think that if we look at this film with objective eyes almost 40 years later,we see a film of great technical skill,with major narrative flaws.Kubrick showed us in film after film how misanthropic he was.This movie is the perfect example of this.
This Is It (2009)
A Fitting Final Performance
My wife asked me to see this movie tonight as sort of a preview,to let her know if we should see it together on our day off.As we are both Michael Jackson fans,I would have to give an emphatic "YES" to that.I was really apprehensive,since I thought that it would just be some rehearsals with tons of filler(biographical info,etc),but most of the numbers were pretty fleshed out,music and choreography wise.Some of the special effects were amazing,and I really liked the extended intro of "The Way You Make Me Feel".I liked the way they tried to make the film feel like a performance,rather than a eulogy.The talent,from the dancers to the musicians to the lighting and effects crew were just first rate all the way.I thought beforehand that this might be just a cynical cash grab-one more trip to the ATM from Michaels legacy,but honestly,I think they may just be trying to recoup some of the enormous costs of putting on a show that never came to fruition.And if some of us fans can enjoy seeing MJ one more time in such a classy way,Im all for it.
Redline (2007)
Makes The Fast and Furious Movies Look Like The Godfather
Im proud to say I've seen all three Fast and Furious films.Sure,the plots are kinda silly,and they might be a little cheesy,but I love them car chases,and all the beautiful cars,and the clandestine midnight races.And Ill gladly see a fourth one.
Wanna know what the difference is between those three and Redline?Decent acting,somewhat thought out plot,even if they are potboilers,and last but not least,directors who have a clue.All three were made by very competent directors,all of them took the films in a different direction,equally exciting.Redline looks like the producer picked out a dozen women he slept with on the casting couch,and made them the extras,then picked up his leads from Hollywood's unemployment line.And the script.Yikes.Its Mystery Science Theatre 3000 bad.This is 70's made for TV movie bad.
Yeah,the movie had a few cool cars,but you don't really get to see that many in action,and the action is directed so poorly you cant get excited by the chases,and if the cars aren't thrilling you,why go to a movie like this?
Im in the audience with a bunch of teenagers,and I cant stop laughing out loud.Im getting dirty looks,but this was just a debacle.
Rent the F&F movies.Go to Nascar Race.Go to a karting track and race yourself.Whatever you do,avoid Redline like bad cheese.
ATL (2006)
Much Better Than I Expected
The New Urban drama/comedy ATL,about a group of friends coming of age in Atlanta,was better than I expected in so many ways:It was sweet.It had heart.It was funny in real and unexpected ways,and it had a pace and rhythm all its own.
Another reviewer mentioned "Cooley High" as a reference,but I would also add American Graffiti,especially in using a central location,in this case a roller skating rink,as the focus of the action,as the meeting place of the kids in the area.
I'm afraid that once the word gets around that this isn't another tough,gangster style film,that it will die quickly at the box office,as evidenced by the bored,loud teenagers I saw the film with tonight.
Are small,personal African American films like ATL and "Something New" doomed to failure because of their refusal to dumb down to their audiences with broad,crude humor?I hope not,but why should they be any different than white audiences that cant see a good thing if their lives depended on it either.
End of rant.Take a chance on a film that takes a chance.
Hellboy (2004)
Our Hell Lasts Two Hours And Five Minutes
This film is another in an alarmingly growing number of action films that seem to mistake loud,busy CGI effects with action.I have to admit that the director(Del Toro) has a wonderful sense of visual style(the creatures are imaginatively creepy and menacing)but no sense whatsoever about how to use them as part of a story.The whole enterprise was trite,predictable,cliched,and souless.Did we really need another "tortured,missunderstood,lone wolf" hero?Did his love interest have to be a girl whos channeled Steven King via Drew Barrymore?The fact that Im asking these and a hundred questions just like this tells me that the screenwriter and director(one in the same here)hasnt done his job.Ill wait for X3 and Spiderman2,thank you very much.
Boh lei chun (1999)
A Smile On Your Face Is Guaranteed...
Being a big Jackie Chan fan,and knowing from experience how much better the HK versions of his films are,I picked the HK version of this up last week,and I cant tell you how much I loved this one.Im probably one of the few Jackie fans stateside that likes the humor in most of his older movies,as well as the action,so this one really made me laugh,and Shu Qi is just luminous as the female lead.One thing I really liked about this one was the charactarizations of so many of the other players had real dimension to them,including the so called bad guys.And Ive noticed that most of the best one on one fight scenes in his movies are the ones with a fighter thats treated as an equal,and fought as clean,fair fights,(examples:In Wheels on Meals,Dragons Forever,Who Am I,etc.)and his two fights with Bradely James Allen are good examples of this. I know a lot of guys who watch Jackie just for the fights and stunts are dissapointed with this one,the rest of us with a more open mind will probably like this almost as much as I do.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
1980's style Sci-Fi Overkill
The Matrix Revolutions seemed less like a Trilogy than a serial-The Further Adventures of Neo,The Flying Wooden Actor.It seems like this time,the directors were so set on explaining things,that they forgot the little things that made the first Matrix so much fun-imaginative set pieces,thrilling action and stunts....incidentals like that.What we get in their place is overblown,mega sci-fi action scenes,the kind I thought were put to bed in the 80s by movies like Star Trek the Movie, Krull,and The Black Hole-big,empty special effects vehicles looking for a story.Sure the effects are elaborate,and impressive,but I couldnt keep up with what was going on in the battle scenes.It all looked like a really pretty blur to me.And what happened to all the cool martial arts moves from the first two movies?I never really bought into the quasi metaphysical aspects of the story,so the resolution wasnt dissapointing to me,just very silly.In the future,when anyone mentions the matrix trilogy,ill remember the first movie with fondness,and conveniently forget the last two films
The Shape of Things (2003)
More Adventures in LaBute-land
The Shape Of Things is the latest installment in Director Neil LaBute's "People are immoral the world is going to hell in a handbasket" series that started with In The Company Of Men,continued with the equally misanthropic Your Friends and Neighbors,and plows on again with his latest film,which began as a stage play,featuring the same actors. I love the way LaBute challenges and engages us with his strong,and (i think) moralistic views on modern male-female relationships,but it seems like his characters are just mannequins that he can hang his concepts on,not real,identifiable human beings.The way these four people talk,especially early on,when they are supposed to be engaging each other,seems artificial.I mean,how many people that beautiful in college would act that geeky? I know I'm on the short end of this argument,but I think that by the end, Rachel Weisz's character is a sympathetic,if pathetic one.You can see in her eyes,and her gestures, that she has feelings for Paul Rudd,and that her ruthlessness,especially at the end,is partially a response to his actions involving Gretchen Mol.I don't think of her character as evil,just clumsily amoral,even earnestly so. Overall,I think this film is more of a thesis than a character study,but one that will ignite heated discussions over coffee when its over,and how many films do you see can you say that about?(7 stars)