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BrunoLawrence
Reviews
Dirty Work (1998)
Without doubt the worst film ever made
This film is worth watching if only so you can then claim to have seen the worst film ever made. It features truly appalling acting - the lead character is a horrid mix of the worst aspects of Billy Crystal, Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider, only far worse than you can imagine. Every line is delivered flat and incompetently - like the dead hookers sequence. It's cringe-inducing. The humour is not only mentally challenged it treats the audience like it's ESN - every "joke" is spelt out so no-one is left in any doubt. For instance, the bearded lady gets shaved, so we see the result, see the word "bearded" being deleted but to cap it off we get the dwarf saying "she lost her beard". Thanks for that, I really needed that gag explained 3 ways! And the drug shoot out is so painful it's sadomasochistic to watch - like the whole film. And the dead hookers scene? Genius! Of course live TV would air that sort of rubbish, and it was just so funny, and not misogynistic one bit. It also shows just how desperate Chevy Chase and Chris Farley had become that they would stoop so low to be in this garbage.
Afterlife (2005)
Brilliant in every way
This series has it all: excellent writing that is witty, terse, dramatic and thrilling. The direction is excellent too - edgy, scary, gripping with cinema-esquire cinematography. The acting is first class too - ordinary people dealing with affliction, emotion, death etc - much better than the US series full of models and glamour - in contrast this is earthy and realistic.
The story lines are similar to The Sixth Sense and are clearly derived from that concept, but each one is expertly handled. One of the best of the series involves a hoax supernatural experience - just wait for the ending! Top notch, hair-raising stuff.
Steel and Lace (1990)
Bizarre mix of horror, sci-fi, rape revenge, and detective story.
A bizarre mix of I spit on Your Grave, crossed with 80s splatter horror films, Terminator-esquire cyborg flicks and journalistic detective stories.
The horror element is made up of the gory deaths the rapists suffer. The deaths are some sick stuff - yet MGM showed it with a 16 rating! There is no way this was made in 1991. I guess this sat on the shelf for at least 5 years. This is pure early to mid 80s. All grey-flecked suits, rolled up sleeves, wide shoulder pads, permed mullets, grey marble, clashing pastels, and bright neon tube lighting. This was made in the 80s and sat on the shelf gathering dust, and no surprise.
There's the occasional laughable B movie dialogue which lifts the film, but the overall grimness of the film makes it hard to watch and stomach.
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
Interesting for an hour and then it was way way way way too long Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The first hour was interesting - the use of the Bradbury building, LA architecture, the Ennis Brown House etc. I really likes the clips of various films showing the same place as if it was all over the world or all over America.
Then the film starts to fixate on 40/50s B movies with repeated showings of the same black and white films. It started to get boring at that point.
Then the droning narrator goes into full-on student essay mode with a dull treatise on high and low tourists and the impact of gay porn. Eh? What a terrible disappointment after a promising start. It became so pretentious, incoherent and boring. What's more it reveled in obscure art movies whilst castigating mainstream Hollywood. Who cares about arty drug and gay flicks from the late 60s early 70s?
And there are SO many other issues of interest - as he showed in the first hour - there was no need to repeatedly show Zabriskie Point and LA plays itself YAWN.
My wife and I walked out at the intermission and didn't come back. I think that is a first.
American Experience: Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004)
Yet another excellent documentary
There are so many excellent documentaries being made these days. This another example.
What is so striking about this story is how far people were willing to go to complain about racism and poverty. What's more, many people were willing to support them. One Berkley student, Popeye, makes the most telling statement when he says how sad it is that the likes of the SLA are required to make people act to stop poverty in the US.
Even more disturbing is that no-one would dare even think like this now. They would be branded unpatriotic terrorists. What this doco and see how freedom of speech and thought has been eroded and how the popular media is now just a puppet of the government and big business interests.
It is also incredibly ironic. Patty Hearst joined the SLA in their fight against racism and poverty. As soon as she was captured she was let out within months and Clinton gave her a full pardon. Compare that to those people without money and a powerful family - they went to jail for years. When push comes to shove, money and power will keep you out of jail whilst others involved in EXACTLY the same event go down for 8 years! Where are the SLA when you need them ... ;)
The Corporation (2003)
An excellent assessment of corporations.
You don't need to be leftist or a Michael Moore fan to appreciate this documentary about the insatiable greed for wealth and power that dominates with corporations. You only need to look at the salaries of the CEOs of Disney, Nike etc compared to the wages paid those who produce the goods they well to appreciate the increasing disparity of wealth in the world. When you learn that US corporations are trying to privatise rainfall in the Third World and force them to use seeds that self-destruct after one season you realize why the rest of the world views the US and its business interests with suspicion.
A very harrowing film that is a tad too long, it is nonetheless vital viewing. Absent is the self-serving doco style of Michael Moore. Instead this shows in a remarkably balanced way that the likes of Monsanto are psychopathic entities and the media utterly beholden to them. Be afraid.