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MisterKentSanderson
Reviews
Waiting for Trains (2002)
Fairly Pointless
The film, while commendable for its attention to tonality and photography, simply doesn't gel as a cohesive, meaningful narrative. Monteverde's direction is highly reliant on said wonderful photography, but his story simply makes no sense.
Ostensibly about a modern Civil War, there is absolutely no proof of this at all during the film, and the connections it attempts to make between the main characters' childhood and his current situation are tenuous at best. It's a broad attempt at nostalgia, but better choices could have been made, both in the past and present narratives.
But as I said, it's kinda pretty.
Lord of War (2005)
Not Good
Andrew Niccol, while clearly an intelligent person (and occasionally filmmaker), takes his second misstep after "Simeone." While the movie's pace is cleverly orchestrated, it lacks firm decisions tonally - it's an activist movie without a thesis.
Nicolas Cage delivers an enthusiastic, if somewhat uneven performance, but is hampered endlessly by his own narration (which dominates the film, often spoiling the plot in advance). In the end, the film is predictable, stilted, uneven, and indecisive. It's not dramatic when it intends to be, and the humor is too held back by whatever dramatic aspirations Niccol was after.
But hey, nice photography.