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Star Trek Continues: Fairest of Them All (2014)
Why no Vulcan pinch?
I liked this episode (as I did the whole series), it was certainly a nice continuation to "Mirror, Mirror" from TOS. While some people complains that Todd Haberkorn isn't up to par with Leonard Nimoy (who is, really?), I think he does a really decent Spock, who is allowed to shine in this particular story. My only gripe is that in his fight with "evil Kirk", he should have been able to defeat him easily by way of the Vulcan pinch, but alas he didn't use this handy (in the most literal sense) technique. I guess it's just another case of abilities coming and going to the convenience of the script, as it so often happens in popular fiction. Anyway, great work of everyone involved.
Ghost World (2001)
Nice cast and visuals, bad adaptation
If you've read the comic this is based on, you may be as puzzled as I am, it's so different in spirit from the movie. At first I thought this was another case of a director taking too many creative liberties, but since Clowes himself co-wrote the script, it seems he simply decided to dramatically change the personality of his two protagonists.
Sure enough, the visuals of the film are a fine translation of Clowes' quirky art, but the dynamic between the two main characters and the way they relate with their surroundings is greatly changed. The comic is about two young girls interacting with all sorts of weird characters, a mostly unspoken rivalry for the attention of the same guy and both characters' feelings of inadequacy. Although they like to play jokes on people, they never really hurt anybody. What we have in the movie is Becca turned into an almost non-entity, while Enid becomes a cruel, despicable person. While in the original she had a strained realtionship with her well-meaning father, she wasn't mean to him, neither did utter such horrible phrases as "I'm not even hearing anything you're saying".
Then, of course, we have her relationship with Seymour, a character who wasn't even in the comic. Sure, the girls tricked a hapless guy into a fake date in a diner, but that was all, he didn't ever show up again. Nevertheless, for some reason Clowes and Zwigoff choose to turn the guy into the movie's co-protagonist, a nerdy collector of jazz records who develops a close friendship with Enid. This certainly is a character who could belong in a Clowes' comic, but Enid falling for the guy and eventually sleeping with him? Seems absolutely out of place, it's as if she had slept with Bob Skeets, the weird psychic from the original. Not to mention she completely destroys the guy's life and his only chance at happiness. I totally fail to see what the writer-director duo tried to convey with this - that pretty, insecure girls can badly mess lonely middle-aged guys? Seems like a story more fitting for a Hallmark drama. Meanwhile, Becca remains at the background, the subtext of her feeling eclipsed by Enid's personality totally lost. Josh, who was a key character in the book, barely makes an appearance here. The pseudo-magical realism of the ending is quite unimaginative, too, and makes for an unsatisfactory conclusion. The movie actually has a post-credits scene, unfunny, uneeded, and that farther deepens Seymour's misery.
As expected, the strong cast is pleasant to see, but the story simply isn't there. Not that everything's a total failure - the art school subplot (created solely for the film) is kind of fun, and makes a good point about contemporary hypocrisy. I also enjoyed the party at Seymour's house and Enid's failed attempt at working. Nevertheless, the movie is overall much less funny and interesting that the graphic novel, the array of extravagant characters and situations greatly reduced. Clowes had a further collaboration with Zwigoff, so you'd think he was satisfied with how Ghost World turned out. Nevertheless, for me he's a comics guy, a prollific and enjoyable one at that, and his strenghts clearly lie at that art form.
The Blue Max (1966)
"Plane" silly
The movie is astonishigly simplistic. George Peppard shows up in his regiment and it's soon apparent that he's totally obsessed with downing enemy planes, the outcome of the war be damned. The reason for his obsession? Apparently some inter-class tension with German aristocracy, but this is so utterly undeveloped that you're left guessing.
Anyway, George gets to kill a lot of enemies, and in the meantime one of his comrades dies in stupid game of "let's see who does the riskiest aerial stunt". Our hero also meets his idol, the Red Baron, and sleeps with Ursula Andress, who is the wife of a big shot General (played by James Mason), but he doesn't seem to enjoy it all that much. The General totally knows George is boinking his wife, but he doesn't care, because he wants to make a hero pilot oh him, so whatever. In the end, a field Marshall hears about an ugly thing George did and, wishing to avoid the scandal, General Mason makes the hapless pilot test a "death trap" test plane, bringing an explosive end to George's distinguished career. Because that's totally what Generals do (specially if they're German!!), kill their best men at the most desperate time of war, even though he could have solved the whole problem with a private talk with the Marshall. Not that we really care, since George's character was kind of a bastard.
In all seriousness, everybody's talent is wasted here, as well as the presumaby sizeable budget. The dialogue is incredibly silly and obvious for the most part, and not even the aerial scenes are particularly impressive. The depiction of WWI is also really tame and generic. I actually watched the movie because of Douglas Slocombe being the cinematographer, but it's probably one of his most unremarkable works. All in all, two and a half mostly unnecessary hours that at least serve to prove that vapid, overblown movies aren't only something of present times.
The Karate Kid Part III (1989)
Fun and underrated
I honestly don't get why this movie is so hated. Well, I kind of get it - at its core, it's a B movie with lots of implausibilities, but so was Part II and (to a lesser extent) the original. I think this one is perfectly on par with the first sequel, and it even has a more satisfying arc.
There are lots of things to be enjoyed here, like for instance the bad guys - main villain Terry Silver is a fresh departure from the previous baddies, even if too archetypical (he's an evil businessman who dumps toxic wastes in places like Borneo, no less). His plan kind of makes sense and is fun to watch, though at the end it gets too silly and obvious. Kreese, on the other hand, is not so great - he turns too cartoony-evil and his hair is terrible, but he's a welcome return anyway. Mike Barnes, for his part, is the most vicious villain in the whole series - while Johnny, Sato and Chozen kinda had their motivations, Mike is all hate and greed - a good if cheesy antagonist, all in all.
Points up also for Jessica, played by Robin Lively, who is way cuter than Elizabeth Shue. Her early departure from the movie leaves a feel of uncompleteness, though. It was also really nice to see Randee Heller back a Mrs. Larusso, even if it was for a single scene - It gives a nice sense of cohesion to the trilogy, and she looks better than in the first film five years back.
The greatest thing about the movie is the evolution of Daniel and Miyagi's relationship. There's a really well stablished bond among them now, and we get to see them living together, as well as Miyagi doing some actual parenting, an aspect of the movie which seems to be totally overlooked. Daniel giving up college to fulfill his friend's dream is a nice touch, too (although it's a pity we never get to see the bonsai store completed). Macchio has complained that Daniel unlearns some of the lessons he learned on the previous movies, but adolescence is precisely about that. And besides, he's REALLY pushed into the fight (although he could easily have skipped the tournament, even after signing).
Once again, Bill Conti's music really shines - even though by this point all is basically a rehash from the first two remarkable soundtracks, we get a really nice, classical-sounding theme for Terry Silver, and some of the rehashes are are really good, too.
The weakest point of the movie is the large number of implausibilities - as in Part II, there is no police in sight, and the baddies can break, enter, break again and steal with no fear for the consequences, even with lots of witnesses and traces that unmistakably lead to them (leaving the tournament form in the scene of the robbery? Really?). Daniel is right in that Miyagi is way too passive about all of this, and it's really no such wonder that he looks for another instructor. Pity he didn't look for a diestist, too - Macchio is chubby in this one, and the movie really suffers from it. If he was a not-so-believable romantic lead in the first two movies, he definitely doesn't look the part in this one.
The karate scenes are kinda poor, too - specially Miyagi's - If you're gonna pit him single-handedly against three mean, bigger and younger karate experts, at least use a stuntman, as in the first movie. His fights are poorly shot, trying to fool the viewer with abundant cuts, and not convincing at all. I liked the tournament, though - It has a positively nightmarish quality, with no girlfriend and no mom - only Miyagi and Daniel getting the sh*** beaten out of him. Unfortunately, the climax is simply laughable - after the great crane kick and the lame drum technique, writer Robert Kamen clearly couldn't come up with another gimmick, and gave us a contrived ending - a seasoned fighter like Barnes would never have been scared of something as routine and harmless as kata; he'd rather have laughed it off hysterically and gotten the victory point with a vicious blow. Nevertheless, it's good to see Daniel Beat evil, and the final hug, dissing the formal martial arts salute, is a nice touch, too.
So yeah, all in all a nice, watchable conclussion to the series. Even if the people involved in the movie seem not to have it in high regards, I'm positive they'd been damn sorry not to have made it. I'm also sure that with a better-looking Macchio and a better-resolved final fight, this would be just as loved as Part II. I'd rather watch this one any day.
The Forgotten (2004)
Very silly experiment
EVERYTHING ON THIS REVIEW IS A SPOILER:
Oh yes, you BELIEVE the bad comments! This movie has a horrid script, hands down. You know the premise: A mother loses her son and one day everyone begins to forget about the kid; pics, videos and everything disappears. Her psychiatrist tells her that she's nuts and must go to a mental institution. She escapes and is later arrested, but the NSA -no less- wants to take care of her, so you know there's SOMETHING ELSE. And what is that "else"? Aliens are abducting children to conduct experiments, and the government is collaborating with them, for the space guys are too powerful to oppose. Wanna know how powerful they are? Powerful enough to see and hear everything that happens at any time, anywhere on earth. They can also change newspapers and records, make all trace of any person disappear and create memories in people's minds. THAT is how powerful they are.
Yet with all their power, all the physical evidence we see of them is people getting vacuumed into the air. Wherever you are in the planet, they can suck you just like that. But, if aliens cand do all that, WHY the hell do they need to use the NSA, or any other earthly power for that matter? Isn't it plainly stupid to chase Julianne Moore the entire movie when they know all the time exactly where she is and they can vacuum her when they feel like it? Not that she and her fellow parent are very adept at hiding: Though they are constantly chased they never worry about changing their appearances a single time. She goes to her husband's workplace (which should be heavily guarded) in a completely careless way, and also goes to the other parent apartment after they become fugitives, though no cop shows (are they incompetent or what?). Speaking of the apartment, aliens can modificate newspapers, minds and whatever necessary, but can't erase a child's paintings from the walls. I guess that just takes too much power, so they just prefer to cover them, though they're easy to discover.
And what's the reason behind all? The EXPERIMENT. What's the experiment, you ask? The alien guy explains it: "We can measure a mother's love for his child (Oh yeah? HOW?), but we can't quite understand it. So we try and see if we can break the bond between them". And for what in the world? Remember, these aliens can see and hear it all, can abduct anyone in a second, we couldn't ever dream of challenge their power. So why would they ever care about breaking the mother-child bond? They do it out of boredom? And why is Julianne the only one who doesn't forget? Well, it's because... er... because she's very stubborn! No kidding, that's all the explanation we get! Every other parent in the world can be a lousy forgetful bastard, but not Julianne, she could never do that!
So that's the end of the experiment, the bond can't be broken, right? Wrong! The alien is getting nervous because if she doesn't forget, "the experiment will be a failure" Pardon me?! The point of an experiment is to OBSERVE results, not to provoke them! If you want to achieve concrete results, then it's a project, not an experiment! Can't the writer even tell this simple difference? Anyway, he erases Julianne's first memory from her baby, so that's it! But no, it's useless, she remembers again! So the alien guy is vacuumed as a punishment. Serves him right!
In the end the cold heartless aliens become suddenly benign and decide to give everyone's children back, just like that (in return for ruining their experiment?). The little ones don't remember a thing and go on happily with their lives (just ignore the fact that more than a year has passed in the rest of the world!). Even more, no one remembers anything at all, just Julianne (she's stubborn!) But who cares about the terrible truth she's discovered, she's got her son back after all (would they also return the photo albums?), smile and enjoy!
And that's about it. Now you judge if you want to pay to see THIS.
Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (1987)
Nice, but wrong approach.
I won´t come into the old debate "book vs. movie"; They´re different mediums, and in the translation from one to the other a number of things have to be changed or left out. In the case of "Anne of Green Gables: The sequel" the problem´s not as much things ommited as the strange mix we get. There are elements from "Anne of Avonlea", "Anne of the Island" and "Anne of Windy Poplars" in here. Trying to be all of them to some extent, it ends up being none.
The producers got themselves into unnecesary problems, and ended up making too many wrong decisions. Firstly, there´s no sense in mixing three novels when almost all of the actions belongs to "Windy Poplars". This way, what we get is a kind of twisted version of this novel. It´s Windy Poplars without Windy Poplars! Why do you adapt this lovely book removing the main element in it, the titular boarding house? The delicious widow sisters and the wacky lady who lives with them are a no-show. Instead, characters which were almost anecdotical, like Katherine Brooke and the Harris come to the forefront. I could barely remember them from the book! Introducing Captain Harris as Anne´s love interest, this seems done in order to fit a wrapped up story in four hours, which seemed by far the biggest worry of Mr. Sullivan.
Anne and Mr. Harris´ romance is very objectionable. I don´t think she would ever in the world be interested by a 20-years older than her businessman. It´s absolutely against her character! If they wanted to introduce a love rival for Gilbert, it should´ve been some young guy with the romantic appeal Anne´s always been craving for. There´s not even real competition: Gilbert´s absent from the scene, studying in Halifax!
Anyway, not everything´s bad, by a long shot. Virtues from the first part are still there, such as very adequate production values and performers. Megan Follows is a good Anne no doubt, though she´s very tiny, and in some scenes she seems all hair. We get a good rendering of the Avonlea universe, and some parts are well reflected, as her handling of the Pringle clan. Along with the defects we get a reasonable amount of "Anneish" moments.
I believe they could have avoided most of the problems adapting "Anne of the Island": It tells far more transcendental events in the life of Anne, and it´s got a far more coherent and satisfying love story. I have a hard time understanding why they went with this strange compendium.
All in all, a nice if somewhat flawed rendition of L. M. Montgomery´s world. I think Mr. Sullivan does not despise the story, but he doesn´t care enough for it either. I wouldn´t say his is the definitive version of the Anne universe at all. This should be made not into a mini series, but a long one, that delivers all the little details in the novels, which are the real joy of them. Check out the japanese animated series, an absolute masterpiece. Meanwhile, we´ll wait for a more comprehensive treatment of this most exceptional story.
Cruel Intentions 2 (2000)
Just ignore the reviews! Bold, unexpected gem!
First I´ll say I´m not in the teenage bunch (I´m 29), and that I´m happy to see an intellectual piece anytime, as long as it´s entertaining also (got that, Andrei Tarkovsky?).
Once that´s clear, what makes Cruel Intentions 2 so damn good???!!! Well, I wouldn´t like to drag, so I´ll go straight to the point: It´s plainly the best teenage girl fantasy ever. Yup guys, this one´s got babes-a-plenty, but ones with wittiness and a brain. The step sister really makes for a GREAT villain. She´s not just the typical snobbish rich girl often seen in this kind of movies, she´s much colder, smarter...I could believe a girl like this exists!
As for the rest of the female cast, man, they´re heavenly! Beautiful, clever, and the guy who designed those uniforms really knew what he was up to! Don´t miss the step-sister´s merciless seduction of her teacher. That´s good cinema! On a minor note, what about when another teacher rejects her, but immediately shows his liking for a male student? It´s a great gag!
Thanks to the good writing, in this movie the "bad" brotherhood of rich spoiled teens actually ends up becoming sympathetic. Don´t miss the much-celebrated shower scene! You can´t hate those girls!!
The main character, Sebastian, makes for a great counterpart for the "villain". Intelligent, self-assured, but sensitive nevertheless, and unwilling to let his step-sister have her way.
And the movie really does have a message. It is: Romanticism and faithfulness are ok, but...other ways may be good also. Much better, in fact. Are the characters in this movie "bad", actually? Yeah, they´re rich and spoiled, but they only mess with their equals, and what for? To tell them: Hey, we´re rich; We´re beautiful. Put traditional morals aside and enjoy sex and life! Which, by other side, you can also do not being rich at all. You just don´t have to live by everybody´s standards. Is it having a single, steady lover, the only, better way? The story presents this questions with great intelligence.
And as said before, the flick is full of really beautiful ladies. The Danielle character in particular is one to really look at. I sure hope to see more of this actress!
So ignore the reviews, do yourself a favor and watch this one without prejudices! It´s lots better than 75% of the stuff that´s making it to the silver screen. Great story, great humor, gorgeous babes...It sure deserves a chance!