Change Your Image
Lewsir
Reviews
Impromptu (1991)
This is a slapstick farce
I am writing this because I've read 10 reviews and people seem to be taking this movie seriously. I don't understand. It's clearly a silly spoof of a film, not to be taken the least bit seriously. It's somewhat entertaining in that regard, though not particularly inspired. The acting is passable - though the more this is seen as intentionally silly, the better I would rate the acting. Whether it does the least bit of justice to George Sand, I'm not sure, but I hope not. Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant are pretty much wasted, since they are not especially comedic actors. Though as usual I enjoyed watching the sublime Mandy Patinkin, he can do no wrong in my eyes...
Anyway, just don't expect a serious drama here...
Bob's Burgers (2011)
Sort of up and down these days
I've been watching Season 3 lately so this review mostly reflects these episodes. I'm giving Bob an 8 since it is way better than most other things (not just cartoons) on TV, although "objectively" I'd give it a 6 these days.
I won't retell the key themes, but I agree with many reviewers that the characters are interesting, the voices are great, the animation is fine if simple (and often hilarious actually), and much of the script writing is inspired. However I feel that in Season 3 it is drifting a bit over toward over-the-top plots, going for some cheap laughs and convoluted, over-stimulated situations. Some of these work pretty well, some don't. Feels more this way than back in the good old days of Season 1 and 2.
Really what makes it a great cartoon is the family banter around the kitchen table or burger bar, and general random interactions between characters. Oh, and Louise's schemes...and Tina's adolescent awakening...and Gene's general zaniness...And Linda's sunny demeanor...and Bob's zen way of taking it all in stride, except when he doesn't...
Anyway, looking forward to see what Season 4 brings!
The Hunger Games (2012)
A reflection on us?
I thought it was a reasonably good movie, compared to most I see. I thought the acting was reasonably good, the casting, direction, costuming/makeup well done. I agree with many here that the camera work was pretty annoying. I thought some of the special effects were pretty good.
But what really hit me was the feeling of sitting there, watching the whole reality TV thing (or ancient Rome thing) taken to its logical conclusion, and that I'm actually part of the voyeuristic problem, because I paid my $10 to watch other people being killed. If you could do it (and I think you could), I think it would be very cool to have a scene where the camera pans around the audience in the film, watching raptly, but the camera continues to pan around the actual theater where we were all sitting and have us see ourselves for what we are - not much better than the people in the capitol feasting on the carnage. (Incidentally it doesn't help that many people here on IMDb have complained that the killing scenes aren't clear enough!) I find the whole thing pretty unsettling. I suppose that's the author's intention - I will now read the book to see if I can discern such a motive...and I will keep looking around the reviews and boards here to see if anyone else has this reaction - so far I don't see it. Maybe we're all too jaded to worry about that?