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mdugmore
Reviews
Best in Show (2000)
Dullest in Show
Seeing such a high rating for a comedy on the IMDB, i put this down as one of my movies to watch.
I wish i hadn't.
The whole style, every scene and line of dialogue is deadpan to the extreme. The story basically follows several different owners as they enter a dog show, through to it being won, and then briefly what happens to them after.
The problem is, every character is supremely annoying or dull and that was pretty much the only joke in the film. To me that isn't enough, and in fact the movie regularly annoyed me. I think it got about one laugh, and a couple of smiles throughout, and the rest of the time i was in pain.
If you think the idea of someone reciting a line, sometimes saying something ever so slightly odd, in a matter of fact and totally deadpan way is enough for a supposed comedy, well, you may like it, but i wouldn't class it as humorous in the slightest when done repeatedly for an entire movie. Some scenes don't even have this slight blessing, and consist of the characters just doing something intensly stupid and annoying, with that trait presumably something to find humour in.
You have been warned.
Hannibal (2001)
Very disappointing
Oh dear...
Having re-watched Silence of the lambs just a few days before, i went to the cinema with great expectations, and possibly because of that felt horribly let down.
SOTL was brilliant largely because of the intelligence and the psychological aspects, Hannibal seemed to have a been very poorly written and seemed to go down the desperate route of using gore and shock instead of intelligent well written cinema.
Additionally there were numerous *huge* gaps in parts of the film that blatantly had been cut due to time restraints - these along with other plot holes and major annoyances left me extremely disappointed...
The acting itself was fine, and again Antony Hopkins gave a good performance (although severely limited by the material he was working with - his character was no where as good as in SOTL). Moore didn't seem as good as Jody Foster (who is rumoured to have turned the part down due to the script) at the character Clarice Starling, but was passable none the less.
Doubtless if i hadn't seen SOTL so recently the movie would have faired much better, but if a film wants to get game from it's predecessors it should accept the downside of being compared with them. Live by the sword, die by the sword as they say.
Overall i'm still glad i went to see it, but i'm afraid it gets a very depressing 5 out of 10...