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spirit9912
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2 Days in Paris (2007)
Clichés filled movie
I thought this movie is gonna be a great one, but it wasn't good, not even mediocre, it was close to be very bad. Why? It's rated 7.2 or so? It pulls almost all clichés of europeans - as European myself I watch such a movie and shake my head upon a European feeding the clichés to the world. That's just bad writing. The couple is completely dysfunctional, they cannot speak to each other, and this goes on for 90 mins. The US guy is a cliché of a moron, unable to communicate other than English, it's not a problem with language, it's the inability to express oneself without words, the couple fails, the story fails, and so the movie.
Fastfood, lot's of sex of french people, the lost group of republicans in Paris - this story does deliver no substance, nothing goes deep, close and touched me.
It's a disappointment to see a movie with so little story, bad acting, good actors I would say and nothing but such a movie finally.
Waste of time.
Lady in the Water (2006)
Good Story - Bad Movie
Paul Giamatti, what a gifted actor - even I dislike Lady in the Water for several reasons, Paul still is brilliant, I wish him more good roles to show his talent.
Now, Lady in the Water, when a director appears in his own film, you are either doing Citizen Kane, or you are failing miserable, because nobody dares to tell you "you can't act, leave it to people who can".
The story: overall idea, great, put into picture, very bad; I don't believe the figures, it's a mix of imaginative tale and real monsters and fantasy - no reason to show the fairy figures, leave it at the imaginative level, if you trust your own story being THAT good, do it - but since the transformation of the story into a movie turned out so weak, the story could not deliver it.
The figures, they are people who are not believable, their way to believe into the story is superficial, and great talent of the actors is wasted.
The camera work isn't very compelling either, the set is bad, all looks very cheap, like hasty created, no apartment looks like real people live in, figures do not behave believable, they all 'act' - a good movie, an average movie you never feel they are acting, they are what they show - that's what I expect from acting people.
Watch Pan's Labyrinth, and you realize what imaginative movie making is, yet, they show all fairy figures though, but they are there as figures, they have personality - unlike in Lady in the Water being just fancy or scary soulless figures and you don't know who they are and why they do things as they do - and by leaving out reason and motivation, that alone doesn't make up suspense - only real beginners think this way, and this is why so many people are disappointed, because the movie doesn't deliver anything, but withholds too much.
M. Night is trying too hard, for too many movies now, to be brilliant and delivers mediocre to lousy performance as director, story teller and story author - and he cannot act, please tell him.
For all M. Night fans, Sixth Sense was a remake, of at least two movies I know of, one Spanish and a french movie which portrayed the 'I-am-dead-and-I-don't-know' better than Sixth Sense, and even better story, but since such movies hardly make it to the US box office, you think Night has been writing an unique story and movie, this is NOT so.
Sixth Sense was good because of the revelation at the end, but imagine the story you are interrogated in a police station, and you are accused of a homicide, and you are declining all charges, and the police office pushes you to tell your story and admit the killing, and you are refusing, you are simply not remembering, and the time goes on, and you are bullied and finally you give in, after 90 minutes you believe you watch a police interrogation thriller, then you admit of killing ... yourself ... and the officer is gets up and says, "now you can go on, you have freed yourself from the denial" . . .
V for Vendetta (2005)
This is a movie worth watching . . . .
I usually comment on real bad movies - but this time I feel compelled to say "Chapeau Wachowski Brothers", with Matrix 1 you made a classic, with Matrix 2+3 you have shown how to make out of one movie two, and blowing it up with hot air and not fulfilling or bringing the story any further, instead it's just repeated - OK.
V for Vendetta - this very movie get my 10 star rating for the few minutes when Natalie Portman as Evey releases her fears - this is a masterpiece of storyboard, directing and acting. These few moments you see into the human soul, where movies can try to catch those moments. Good actors sense this, good directors lead the actors to such a moment, and it worked . . . I'm deeply impressed, really.
Also, my deepest respect for Hugo Weaving, playing V behind a mask. I didn't recognize Hugo (bad boy in the Matrix series, and good boy in Lord of the Rings) - here he has shown he is a good actor, an excellent actor; he gave this figure V true character, and that's hard having a mask which always smiles, because the things he says are not always to smile with, his body language was excellent to deliver and speak all what the frozen mask couldn't show: motion.
I read about that the author of V for Vendetta complained that the movie turned out to be a liberal movie bashing the right wing US government of GWB and also Blair the liar of the UK - right, this movie took its chance to relate to the current world situation, and I think they did it quite good.
Thank you for making a movie worth watching . . . it has been so rare as of late.
The Great Raid (2005)
a bad movie trying to make you think it's a good one.
This is a movie which fails on all levels: Directing, Actors, Storyboard, Music, Camera What a waste of money to produce such a movie.
Directing: this is the worst directing I have seen for years; a good story wasted with bad directing, the people whether in the POW camp or in the camp of the ranger supposedly to free the Prisoners of War (POW) are all depressive; as director you show the clash between the two parties, one who are the heroes rescuing others, full of motivation, vs those in the prison - but no, this main theme is wasted.
Actors: James Franco from Spiderman 1+2, bad actor, unclear speaking, uninspired, other actors are either 2nd or 3rd class actors, just bad. With a bad director those figures never deliver anything convincing, those who made the movies have no clue of human behavior in such circumstances they tried to portray. Captains or Ltl, all are portrays with hollow personalities. The prisoners look sad, depressed, but it never touches me, why, because I don't believe them - good actors convince me.
Storyboard: good moments are wasted for nothing, the whole happens at sunset, and then during the dark night - near sunset they rub on the ground toward the POW camp, after the sun has set (not showing the slowness of the actual sunset), all of the sudden it's dark, and people watch of their watches for the start of the raid, the entire suspense of getting closer to the POW camp during sunset is not used to show the challenge in that, neither we are shown really how the troops actually reach the fences, because we just see darkness . . . I rarely have seen such a bad storyboard, where moments to portray depth is wasted, instead banalities are captured on celluloid or digital hard-disk.
Music: it's nice, but it's way too dramatic for the bad performance of the movie, and the music is completely out of sync of what's happening on the screen; heroic music meanwhile the raid is over, but all the prisoners still have to walk to the next village, instead of a sunrise, it's still dark, and the whole situation anything but clear, we hear fanfare - man, I can't believe how misplaced music can be.
Camera: this cameraman I would have fired after 10 mins, this is a blunt beginner, there are no closeups, none, people are seen like from distance, no emotion, no intimacy, that's what the entire movie is lacking, it is not convincing. The camera shows and hovers around where nothing is to be shown, great moments (from the storyboard) are not capture, missed, wasted.
To summarize: this is a bad movie in disguise - and those soldiers whose story should be told are ashamed of such a bad movie supposedly glorify their "raid". This story is worth to be told, but NOT THIS WAY.