Rexus_Prime Reviews

City by the Sea (2002)

Really real

[7/10 · 21 July 2003]

City by the Sea is a pretty average movie. It follows a cop (De Niro), whose father was executed for the murder of a child and who is now investigating another murder - perpetrated by his own estranged son.

What stands out for me about the film is it's "realness". Although I have no idea what a Long Island junkie, or NYC detective would talk like, it was refreshing to watch a film where the characters didn't burst into big emotional speeches, all the time.

While the characters are all faced with extraordinary circumstances, they react in a convincingly ordinary way - the way you'd expect real people to act.

The most striking aspect of the film however is the rancidly dilapidated and utterly depressing scenery of Long Island where the film is set.

One criticism I do have is the name of two of the low-life villains in the film: "Spider" and "Snake"? I mean, come on.

In conclusion, City by the Sea is a pretty good film, which I would rate a lucky 7 out of 10, and recommend to anyone who likes a gritty, realistic cop/family drama.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Pretty Damn Fantasticalist

[8/10 · 15 May 2003]

When you watch a movie, say an action movie, that was made in the 1980's, or earlier, you look at it and think: "Man, movies have progressed so much nowadays".

When you watch Reloaded, it's almost impossible to imagine action movies getting any better, ever.

While I heard a lot disappointment in the crowds after the movie and parts of it were a bit of a snorefest (I had trouble keeping my eyes open in some parts, although it was 2.00 in the morning), the action sequences in this movie - particularly the Freeway Scene and Neo's battle with 100 Smiths - are nothing short of utterly spectacular.

The movie, obviously, is very similar to the first, but takes everything to a whole new level. The explosions look cooler, the fight scenes are more amazing, and the characters laugh louder in the face of gravity and all laws of physics.

While if you take a step back and actually look at it, most of it is pretty ridiculous, but no more so than many other movies. You have to just relax, don't think too much, and get lost in the matrix. It is simply entertainment in its purest and most sensational form.

And I think this movie has rendered the genre of action obsolete for many years to come.

The Experiment (2001)

A look into the soul of man - and it is black

[9/10 · 23 March 2003]

The Experiment is essentially a film about power and power relations; how people in positions of power abuse what they have; and the potential of power to corrupt.

Inspired by an infamous psychological experiment conducted in the early 1970's along the same lines, 20 men are divided into 8 guards and 12 prisoners and have to "play prisons" for a 2 week period upon the completion of which they will receive $4000 marks.

The film comments on how people fall into roles of dominance and submission, which they soon do. What starts out in good humour, takes a nasty turn about 1/ 4 of the way through, bringing one to the realisation that things are about to get UGLY. The guards atempts to suppress the growing dissidence and establish order, inevitably build to an explosive climax, that is at the same time heart-stoppingly brilliant, but also an ugly window into what we are capable of given the right circumstances.

It is, interestingly, made in Germany, with the obvious Nazi comparisons easily made. Particularly for the film's antagonist who, unfortunately for him, was born just a few decades too late and is one of the most easily despised characters since Nurse Ratchett. One could consider the film a microcosim of the human condition itself; that

those who get power will subordinate those without it and do anything to hold onto it. Das Experiment is, on the one hand, an excellent, excellent film, but on the other a disturbing insight to the destructive potential of man.

Greed (1924)

The Greatest Movie of All Time

[9/10 · 15 March 2003]

What the axed 7 1/4 hours of Erich von Strohiem's epic masterpiece contained has been forever lost to the ravages of time and the ravages of an artistic medium controlled by commercial imperatives. Von Strohiem is considered perhaps the most opulent director to have ever made movies and instead of converting some of the great American novel "McTeague" to film, he took all of it and added more. What was created was a 91/2 hour epic that is supposedly the greatest film ever made. But even in its butchered form, is a fantastic movie, which gets across its take on the human condition in a simple and straight forward way. We see McTeague and his stingy wife's lives destroyed by the Greed that consumes them and those around them after she wins $5000 in a lottery. The ending in particular, brilliantly and explicitly conveys the cost of man's greed and the emptiness material possessions ultimately bring.