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Reviews
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)
Caution: Your Own Mother May Not Compare Favorably!
As a person born in 1956 and raised in a working class Catholic family on a tight budget, I did find this film a poignant trip down memory lane. Some might criticize the title character as unrealistic, but there is the occasional living saint. What I had a hard time getting my head around is what such an intelligent woman ever saw in the absolute moron played by Woody Harrelson, the dad. I didn't think he was very deft at pulling-off the lovable drunk, if such a thing exists (and if it does, it exists only in the mind of the people he doesn't hurt). I saw him as just a self-pitying buffoon who seriously needed some tough love, not the unconditional acceptance bestowed upon him by his wife. My wife and I also thought the portrayal of the older children, especially the boys, doesn't square with the almost certain reality that in a hard-pressed large family teenage boys would be out hustling to help the family. I guess the script writers didn't want to take the chance that Mom wouldn't get 100% of the credit for holding the family together. One last comment: the actual children are briefly featured at the movies end, as adults, of course. I would have liked to have heard a few of them answer the question: in the balance, was your childhood happy? The purist would say there's no correlation between material wealth and happiness, though studies seem to indicate there definitely is. This portrayal of life on the ragged edge of poverty and the tensions that creates left me wondering "could I be happy if I had to live that way again?" As a child who only knew a similar lifestyle I was, but the prospect of going back there as an adult creates a deep unease in me. A movie that can generate that kind of soul searching has obviously accomplished something.
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
A Perfect Movie
The Phantom is balm for the eye, the ear, the heart. A movie should be about entertainment, and if you can't be entertained seeing and hearing people this beautiful singing songs this melodic in costumes this fabulous on sets this grand, I pity you. If you can't admit you loved this film because it's not cool, or wasn't nominated for 14 Oscars; if you think, as one critic put it that Andrew Lloyd Weber is to music what McDonald's is to hamburgers, then you're not honest and you're pushing some kind of agenda or have a vendetta. Which is the only way I can explain the Academy's snub of this movie. Rossum is an angel come down from heaven, my heart ached for Butler's phantom, and I wasn't even put-off by what could have been a sanctimoniously heroic Raoul, no, heck, I couldn't blame him for loving Christine, and I thought he showed the class to understand that there was love and sexual attraction between Christine and her musical mentor. And that's the last thing I want to say: this may have been the sexiest movie I've ever seen. Wow, I could not take my eyes off it, and I'm having a heck of a time getting my mind off it. I tell everybody that they MUST see this movie. I don't understand the current "cool" critical reception it is getting, but I believe the Wizard of Oz got a cool reception from the critics back in 1939 too. But like the Wizard, I think that in 20 years ALW's Phantom of the Opera will be regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. It didn't have the sweeping cast and the range of talent that West Side Story did, but it had the emotional clout, it had the heat, it more than had the stunning visual beauty. SEE IT!
Birthday Girl (2001)
Good acting, somewhat implausible, leaves you wanting more
Every time I see Nicole I like her more. I love a movie like this. A woman you just won't give up on, but she keeps breaking your heart. First movie I remember seeing like this was Of Human Bondage, the Kim Novak - Laurence Harvey version. The beefs about the correctness of the Russian spoken in this film are petty, it was good enough to fool me or anybody else who can't speak Russian, I'm sure. Funny how people miss the point. The no-goodnik Russian guys were well cast too. Finally, I have to tip my hat to Ben Chaplin, as somebody else noted, he plays a sap with great dignity, and there was definitely some heat between him and Nicole. To think, guys get PAID for that, mind-blowing.
GoldenEye (1995)
One of the best Bond films
This one had it all, a top-notch Bond, great locations, sets, action, and best of all, one of the best Bond women, Izabella Scorupco. Wow, what a beauty, what an attractive character, makes me proud to be Polish (Izabella's Polish too)! That's two straight movies I've seen with knockout Polish female leads, check out Dagmara (last name escapes me) in The Count of Monte Cristo. I've always thought Polish women are some of the most beautiful and sexy. What's cool, I didn't know anything about either of them till after I'd seen the movies. It's always nice when your notions are validated that way.
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
You'd have to be pretty miserable not to like this movie.
OK, so it may not be true to the original Dumas story. However, I think the acting, the script, the action, the sets & costumes, the romance, the moral of the story, and the happy (yet still plausible) ending all added up to an extremely satisfying, high quality movie. I don't know if this was Richard Harris' last film, but if it was, he picked a good finale and did himself proud. I can't wait to see more of Dagmara Dominczyk, viva Polonia!
Blue Crush (2002)
Kamonaiwannalaya Baby!
I loved it, I could watch a beautiful woman/girl surf all day, and the beauty of the North Shore of Oahu surf, wow, the speed & power of the waves, I could just imagine what it'd be like to be in it.
Of course, if you're not intrigued by the beauty, thrills and danger of big surf, if you can't or won't let yourself enjoy looking at a beauty in a tiny bikini, there's not a helluva lot to hang your hat on in Blue Crush. The music was very complementary to the images, you might enjoy that.
I thought Sanoe Lake was the cutest and sexiest of the girls. How do you say her name, San-o Lake, or Sa-noo Lah-kee, or ??? I hope we see more of her, but I wouldn't be surprised if acting isn't her bag.