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lawrencejohnson804
Reviews
Bottoms (2023)
Just so bad
It's supposed to be some kind of updated take on the teen high school comedy. The Howard Hawks style of rapid overtalking dialogue is done well, but there isn't any really comic heart behind it. The characters are unlikable and shallow.
There is a fantastical element that becomes more and more predominant, so that the viewer is completely unable to suspend his disbelief, which has already been stretched to the breaking point by the third act.
The plot is cliche' but not in a "knowing" way, cliche' in a untalented screenwriter way.
Finally, if all this wasn't enough to alienate the viewer, the low budget constantly reminds him that this is very much a low-budget movie. At the "big game," one entire side of the stadium is completely empty. There's a "plot point" to explain it, but it's clearly just a cover for the low budget. And, by the way, how many students are at this high school? Forty maybe? Check out the pep rally scene. You'll see what I mean.
In short, it was just so bad.
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
Life doesn't imitate art
Some reviewers here find it remarkable that "Shoes" predicts a Slavic Pope, and then, lo and behold, John Paul II is elected just ten years later. He was a Slav; and that's about the end of the similarities. John Paul II was from a good, middle-class background and no crazy Socialist like Pope Quinn; he was never in a gulag or Commie prison, either.
If this was supposed to be the Church in the late '80's, I can only say: I wish! It seems like the biggest change at the Vatican, according to this goofy movie, was the papal apartment: John Gielgud seems to be hanging out in a Vegas hotel. And no one seems sad when he dies: all the Cardinals wear their festive lace rochets during the mourning period when traditionally lace was set aside. Oh well, the budget was probably fairly limited after the expenditure on the look-alike Sistine chapel.
There were, however, a couple of things where art imitated life: the ridiculous subplot with David Janssen was meant to reflect West himself, always angry at "the Church" because of his adultery and failed marriage. So, there has to be a "sympathetic" philanderer/adulterer to let West grind his personal ax a little. Likewise, the weirdo priest played by Werner needs to be there to spout all the silly ideas from the 50's and 60's that West and his pals thought were going to change the Church and the world.
One curious but unverified footnote: like Pope Kiril, Paul VI supposedly ordered a white business suit made; but when he tried it on (in the words of a friend), he realized he looked like a bald, little Italian man in a white suit, and that was the end of it.
Some beautiful scenes of Catholic ceremonies, nice views of Rome; otherwise, tedious, dated, and preposterous.
The Ladykillers (2004)
It's all about the Sunday service scene in the church
I don't understand how so many of the "reviewers" here fail to see the underlying story, or symbolism, of this movie, especially since it's one of the oldest plots of all: the defeat of the scheming and wicked by the innocent and good. Everything in the movie is directed to underlining this basic story. "Mrs. Munson" is clearly innocent and simple-hearted (unaware of the irony of her fondness for Bob Jones University, for instance). The candles blow out when "Dr. Dorr" arrives--he also becomes more clearly diabolic in appearance by the end. When he dies, he hangs (for a moment) "between heaven and earth" like Judas. And in the end, he and all his accomplices are carried out to Trash Island, which is made into a symbol of hell by the preacher at the church service. Their evil activities--namely, the efforts to murder Mrs. Munson and each other--take place in the dead of night, but with the death of the Professor, it grows light again. And of course, the Gospel choir sings about the "lighthouse" and "shine your light." So, in a way, the church scene sets up the entire symbolism of the rest of the movie. Personally, I thought it was a well done film with a good blending of symbolism and plain old entertainment.
The Happening (2008)
In Defense of "The Happening"
There will necessarily be a lot of "spoilers" in this review. First off, I concede that it's a matter of taste whether or not someone likes or does not like a movie that uses plot, dialog, acting styles, and so forth to clothe the ideas behind the film, as MNS typically does.
But, having said that, it doesn't seem fair to the director or to those who sincerely desire to know something substantial about the movie in question to dismiss it out of hand because the things mentioned above are not to one's taste. At the very least, it's not very informative.
I think that a better way to approach "The Happening" is to recognize that, like all MNS's movies, the central theme is the importance of connectedness between people, or between people and nature, if you will. For instance, in "The Sixth Sense" there is the alienation of the boy from the sorrows of those who die violently and of the main character (Willis) even from himself. In "The Happening," this theme is broadened to contemporary people's alienation from each other and from all living things. One of the first lines, after all, is a woman telling her friend dispassionately that she left off in her book "where the killers decide what to do with the crippled woman." Then there is the estrangement of the Wahlberg character from his wife, and to a lesser extent from his friend (Leguizamo). The idea is implied that this alienation has somehow spread to the natural world, which in turn intensifies it and revisits it upon people as a compulsion to destroy themselves. There is a clever use of color--as another and more insightful commentator has mentioned here--to indicate what is really going on, especially in the references to the "mood ring." And so, while Science is able to explain the phenomenon to a certain extent, it really cannot get at the heart of the matter. (For example, a scientist in the film predicts the end of the happening, but the viewer is left with the impression that the love and self-sacrifice displayed by the two main characters cause the end of the event.) Thus, at the dramatic climax of the film, "Mrs. Jones," the most isolated of anyone shown, is also "attacked" by nature, while the couple, physically separated, are drawn back together through a true love and "connectedness" to the other, even at the sacrifice of their own lives, and so are unscathed and bring the happening to an end. Interestingly, neither can remember which of the colors of the mood ring indicates love, suggesting that it is green, so that in a sense, this truly is a "green movie," as some have said.
I don't imagine for a minute that what I've written covers the many nuances and subtle symbols of this movie, but what I have mentioned, I hope, would help others at least to appreciate that there may be more to "The Happening" than (as some seem to think) a failed thriller or horror movie.