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jacques_05
Reviews
The Departed (2006)
I can't believe so many people buy this
Whoever seen the original HK version "Internal Affair" years ago should know this is at best a mediocre knockoff. Better than "Good Fellas"? Not a slightly chance. "Good Fellas" is original at least.
I don't blame people who never realize there's an original version. For those who did, I tell you this movie is copying down to every details, I mean EVERY DETAILS. And for whatever they didn't copy over, they're making big mistakes. Shouldn't be so easy to make a film.
I personally heard people laughed out loud in theater. The ones you thought are the main characters should never die, but in this story they go down dramatically, that's kind of shock and the beauty of it, only in the original version though. This remake or should I say knockoff one just go on rampage without any setups, this is not supposed to be one of those "Texas Chainsaw..." movies.
Big cast, great director, ends up a total disappointment, the saddest part is, beloved folks here and TV critics and elsewhere had blindly promoted it to such a high place, where only those ever-lasting master pieces like "Good Fellas", "Godfather" and "Shawshank Redemption" should reside.
Don't argue before you check out the original. Or if you'd prefer to live in lies and illusions, don't care about truth, or worst don't even want to listen to truth, then please ignore this post.
By the way, I am a big fan of gangster movie and USED TO be a big fan of Martin Scoresesis. I think Leonardo DiCaprio is doing alone pretty good in this film but him alone can't save the game.
Dream a Little Dream (1989)
Is Daniel Jay Franklin an Alien?
This guy writes one entirely twisted movie and then disappears. Lately I wonder if this guy even exists.....pseudonym anyone? Daniel Jay = DJ My .02 take it or leave it.
I'll rewatch but just wondering what kinda "screenwriter" writes one movie (about dreams and switching identies no less) and then jumps the scene all together....
As for the movie itself Meridith Selanger is the one saving grace. She is a beautiful actress with the ability to really pull you in. Unfortunately the story itself was obviously written on Acid or something....
-JayBTV
Surface (2005)
The Only TV I Watched in all of 2005
The Only TV I Watched in all of 2005 was Surface and Invasion. The entire family gathered to watch those two shows. If the power was out, the entire neighbourhood would gather at the homes of people with generators to watch those two shows.
And after watching them on TV, everyone I know would still download it from the internet just to keep it around to watch later. I'm having my own little get together with friends to watch all the Surface eps this week and all the Invasion eps next week.
Have these network exec people never seen the huge numbers of people downloading these shows via bittorrent on MULTIPLE torrent sites. If they networks released the shows to the internet immediately after they aired at slightly better video quality and with multi-language sub titles built in, they could leave in or even double the advertisements and people would still download them en mass.
Date Movie (2006)
The worst movie I have ever seen.
I'm very sorry to say, but it's true.
This is very bad movie and I'm very sorry that my wife and kid watched with me.
Actors are not the ones that should be blamed! It's screenwriter and director.
How these guys get a chance to put something like this on film? It's disaster.
Alyson Hannigan is cute as always and I'm very sorry that she accepted to do this movie. Eddie Griffin should never try to do similar movie for his own sake. You should pass this movie if you have better things to do. Just my two cents...
The New Ghostwriter Mysteries (1997)
Nothing but a cheap remake.
The original Ghostwriter had PLOT. There was sequence where one of Alex's friends was using drugs and actually stealing things to sell to pawn shops. He ended up getting beaten up by his dealers for lack of payment and left in an alley. Thankfully, they found him in time, but they could have helped him sooner. Find lessons like that on a kid's show today.
In another, Jamal is slipping a letter of apology to a shop owner when suddenly the place catches on fire. He doesn't tell the police that it's him in the security camera, but admits it when they find out.
From bullies mugging kids for arcade money, to a waste manager dumping toxic waste, to hacking, this show had merit, and even let you try to figure out the guilty party before the team did.
The new team... SUCKED. The whole Ghostwriter only can use letters thing was worked around since all members had PDA's. Therefore, Ghostwriter pretty much solved everything.
There weren't many moral lessons or risky things to show children. The gang had no personality outside the team, unlike in the original, where personality is well developed and plays a major role.
They just run around, solve something, and gloat. All in all, an insult to the original.
Ôdishon (1999)
Difficulty Understanding the Progress of the Movie
In this post I'm going to cover some important points of the progression of the movie, that were not cut and dry.
There are a few different parts where the movie takes its sharp turn into believing that Asami is a mentally scarred torturer, some of which could be considered a dream sequence or a hallucination. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that most of them could be viewed as a dream sequence- but the problem is, not all.
When Aoyama gets in bed with Asumi, it can be assumed they do what we'd expect them to do, and then falls asleep, which would allow him the chance to dream, which could encompass the entirety of Asami disappearing without a trace, meeting the old stepfather, going to the shut down restaurant and the surreal torture sequence, save for the brief moment where he 'wakes up' to be back in bed with Asumi and goes to the bathroom.
This is fine, and works with the exception of the foreshadowing clip of Asumi answering the phone call for the second(?) date, where the slave in a bag rolls across the floor and moans. This is before the dream sequence, and there is no reason for Aoyama to be hallucinating or dreaming at this point- he is just at work and decides to make a phone call on his way out. Also, he doesn't seem the least big perturbed by this vivid hallucination he has, as they go on a date anyway. The placement of this scene tells us the slave, and Asumi's vile intentions are all real.
From there, you have to assume that it is Asumi's disappearance, the crazy old man, the slave in a bag and the torture scene that are all real. The 'waking up' in bed with Asumi is a fantasy. This is supported also by Asumi's body language as she undresses- her movements are slow, and angered, and then she returns to her submissive facade as she faces Aoyama again.
At that point all of the happenings between when Aoyama gets drugged and hits the floor are hallucinations that just don't happen, mixed with the pieces that Asumi told Aoyama while they were going out on dates. For the most part, nothing that Aoyama experiences while falling down drugged is new to him, or couldn't be pieced together inside his head at that point. Also, Aoyama was drugged, so Asumi's little speech after her neck was mangled by her final fall could have been hallucinated as well.
"For the most part", however, doesn't include that Aoyama vividly hallucinates the slave in a bag while falling down from being drugged. If the slave in a bag exists, then he couldn't possibly hallucinate something he has no experience with to that sort of detail. In this description of the progress of events, there is no point where Aoyama is introduced to the slave in a bag, nor is there time for him to be.
That brings us to a binary choice about what to think of this movie: Either Aoyama was hallucinating vividly, without any precursor, of awful things about Asumi that he didn't believe while in no state to do so (which entails that Asumi really is just a tortured girl, not a sadistic torturess)... Or Aoyama vividly dreams something he doesn't know about, that actually does exist. This could be either a super lucky guess, or some mental link between Aoyama and Asumi, or maybe some good old voodoo. This would entail that Asumi actually is the evil torturess, really did cut off one of Aoyama's feet, and possibly died when she hit the floor after sailing over that flight of stairs.
If anyone can piece together the movie so it doesn't have either of these blatant holes in the plot, then I'd be happy to go onto a deeper discussion of the meat of the movie.
Necessity (1988)
Loni at her best!
Just when we thought she couldn't be any better, coming off her extremely successful role as Dagwood's wife Blondie, she wows us again! Loni's chemistry with the guy from the Nexium commercials is amazing, followed closely by the supreme chemistry of her and that guy from Big.
I highly recommend this movie. It is the pinnacle of all human achievement.
I don't want to give anything away, but when she shoots the bad guy at the end of the movie, he dies. Her acting is superb. Also, kudos to the replacement nanny character--the evilest nanny in movie history. I really felt her motivation.
Constantine (2005)
Not quite the comic but a hell of a story
Movies never come out as the comic book dictated (unless you've seen Sin City) so OK, Constantine isn't British anymore and things changed and blah blah... one previous reviewer commented that the devil didn't look 'scary' enough. i guess he forgot Lucifer used to be an Angel..?
This is a really good movie and adaptation, i enjoy Constantine's view of the Devil's deal with God as utter hypocrisy, but the film also made me totally believe in confession and absolution (for a couple of hours anyway). The depiction of the half-breeds, angels, demons and the devil are spot on, in following the tale between heaven, hell and earth. This film is never preachy it doesn't tell us our path, it simply follows the poor bastard Constantine whose path has already been destined.
I got some genuine hide-under-the-covers frights out of it, the music, the performances, the settings... to me it all said Hellblazer. But it also reminded me often of Devil's Advocate, i felt this film stood alongside that one well, climbed far above it in some cases, certainly the mythology of this film is far more in depth and ready to spawn many a sequel. Keanu Reeves is not my Constantine, but his previous dalliances with the Devil, make him well-placed to play this role and bring a bigger audience in. Hopefully for many more of John Constantine's stories to come on screen.
The Kumars at No. 42 (2001)
Live comedy set in a studio a father built for his son
An informal chat show style comedy from a revitalised British comedy scene. Much more intelligent than some of the racially stereotyped humor emerging from the States. The guests are interesting, ranging from Charlotte Church, various tier 2 actors and political guests.
The guests in the first series don't know that the show is a send up and often take the comments at face value. Their confusion is amusing as the "family" play jokes on each other and the guests.
Some guests won't be recognisable to viewers outside Britain.
The same actors had another comedy show. I can't remember the name of it at the moment. Some similarity in style to Ali G, but without the drug references or the bling bling.
Highly recommended for the intelligent viewer.
Executive Target (1997)
So bad it's funny... but still one of the worst movies ever made
OK so the plot... if you can call it that... probably not. But anyway a rogue agency of the CIA breaks a stunt car driver out of jail so that they can kidnap the president... just say that over in your mind a few times then think about whether or not you should rent the movie. From the ridiculous characters, to the incredibly slowly moving Army Rangers, to the out of shape evil CIA guy (who has a sizable gut) beating up an Army ranger, to the general who apparently wears his uniform all the time, to the driving in circles creating a dust storm so the cops can't see a van... the list goes on and on. If you watch this movie with the right attitude you'll be laughing your ass off otherwise you'll be wishing you were dead. Also if you found anything about this movie to be intelligent I suggest you see a doctor immediately as you may have a common condition called stupidity.
Noon o Goldoon (1996)
A Fantastic Exploration of Memory and History
Makhmalbaf has arguably created one of the MOST interesting films I have seen in my entire life.
Casting young men unexperienced in acting to portray himself and the policemen he stabbed when he was 17, the director separates himself and his young self from the policemen and his; they separately train the actors portraying themselves 20 years earlier during an anti-Shah demonstration.
Culminating in the showdown between the young actors, the truths behind the situation unbeknownst to both director and policemen become evident. An extremely powerful film, and I advise you to stop at nothing to view it.
Angels in America (2003)
Blindingly, embarrassingly bad
Tiresome, pedantic and unsatisfying. Clichés abound in character and dialog. The AIDS paranoia that smothered gay America back in the late 80's/Early 90's is not captured very well at all.
The characters are either too preachy, simplistic, lack common sense/intelligence or are so stereotyped that I found surprisingly little empathy with any of their issues.
I didn't appreciate being bludgeoned with ham handed allegory and metaphor, either. Subtilty is not one of this production's characteristics.
The fantasy/hallucination sequences I imagine might have much more impressive in real life during the theatrical production. On screen they just look like a flaming art director got his first access to the MGM prop room.
Al Pachino's over-the-top performance as the declining Roy Cohn is top notch and the only potion of this boat anchor worth watching.
Miracle Mile (1988)
Damn! This movie BITES!!
What a disappointment!! I had some pretty good hopes for this film from what I had heard about it, but the totally awful ending just ruined it for me.
For me, the ending of any film is what makes or breaks it. It's the last thing you remember, and should crystallise in your mind whatever point or message the director was trying to make. But what point was he trying to make here? Having the main characters, the ones you were rooting for, sinking into a tar pit while making romantic allusions to diamonds as the nukes blast overhead is hardly inspiring stuff.
I can't remember the last time I shouted at the screen so much, often repeating things like "You idiot!!", "WTF are you doing!?!" and "For God's sake, get moving!!!" The main two characters seemed to consistently make one bungle after another, often wasting time as if they had all the time in the world. In a situation like that you can't afford to waste a single second! Many other people have commented that it would be difficult to think rationally under such circumstances, but high-stress situations are just as likely to help people think MORE clearly. That's the whole point of getting pumped full of adrenaline - to help you make decisions about whether (and how) to fight or escape as quickly and rationally as possible.
Another thing that bugged me was the editing. In some places, it was suitably fast-paced and exciting, but then it would like totally slip into neutral for several minutes while you're shaking your head wondering what on earth they're doing.
My biggest problem though was with the story. Apart from the unusual (and slow) first act, which follows how the two main characters meet, and which almost seems like another film, the next part of the story where Harry arrives at the cafe and takes the phone call is pretty good. I particularly liked the acting by Denis Crosby (the woman with the mobile phone), and I wish she had been given more lines and time on screen. The story was coming along nicely up until the point when they're in the van heading for the airport and Harry decides he HAS to stop to pick up Julie. I mean really!! There are nuclear missiles on the way and he's worried about stopping to pick up a girl he only just met?? Call me unromantic, but I totally agreed with what the driver said - "every minute counts and I don't stop for nothing'!". The point where he decides to jump is where I lost any hopes for a decent and enjoyable film, and sadly watched the whole thing go downhill from there.
What I would love to have seen instead is for him to have stayed in the van, made it to the airport with the rest of them, and then watched the story unfold as they caught the plane and eventually made it to Antarctica or wherever they were going. This could perhaps have been juxtaposed with intercuts from the scene back in L.A. and perhaps some shots through the plane windows looking off in the distance and seeing tiny nuclear blasts on the horizon. Or failing that, for him to have actually made it back to the helicopter, without Julie running back out like she did (rolls eyes), for them to have made it to the plane, and the rest as above.
Alternatively, the film could have continued to follow the events of Denise Crosby's character and her escape with the others from the cafe, intercutting with the hapless city meanderings of Harry and Julie and their eventual demise. At least then the film would not have totally wasted our emotional investment in Harry and Julie by allowing us some satisfaction in seeing the group from the cafe (and whatever other important people Landa managed to get together) being saved.
Another ending which I think would still have been more satisfying and interesting would be if the nuclear attack never actually arrived (for whatever reason), and which showed how the city would respond to and reflect on the panic that took place, as well as how Harry would feel for having been instrumental in starting it all.
But ultimately, what ends up on the screen here is for me very disappointing. Even "The Day After", depressing as it was, managed to paint a slightly more hopeful picture at its end than this, but I'm afraid "Miracle Mile" just gives me that *sinking* feeling. I'll always be thinking of how much better it could have been, but wasn't.
Girl (1998)
trite and poorly executed
The story had a lot of potential, however, director Kahn's scatter-brained approach leaves the audience not knowing how to react. Is it a black comedy? No, because it isn't particularly ironic, dark, or clever. Is it a coming-of-age story? No, because the experiences of Andrea Marr are so unrealistic and therefore unrelatable to the average 18-year-old high-school girl.
Let's start off with the fact that some big-shot rock star (Sean Patrick Flanery) falls in love with prudish nerd Andrea (Dominique Swain). Hunh? Their "love affair" is the focal point of the movie, but because the characters are so poorly developed we don't know why they're supposedly in love in the first place. One minute Andrea's a straight-A student headed for Brown University, the next she's hanging out with "street people" and has rock stars falling in love with her? There's absolutely no exposition. It just "happens" and the audience is supposed to buy it.
Anyone who's actually gone to a real American high school knows that nerds do not hang out with the punks, goths or art kids. Yet Andrea manages to infiltrate the "cool" scene and is admired within it. Give me a break.
This is probably one of Swain's worst performances. She is twitchy and has no chemistry with Flanery. Her facial expressions are all wrong in many scenes (the crying scene with her dad comes to mind). The most outstanding performance is, believe it or not, from Tara Reid. Her character had some emotional depth and you wanted to find more about her, her background, family, etc. Andrea, meanwhile, is just... a groupie. You don't feel empathy OR sympathy for her. You just wish she'd go away and find a decent hairstyle. Flanery comes off as a block of wood, as usual.
Worst of all, the music sucked. Todd Sparrow's scenes onstage were overindulgent, and expectedly so since apparently the music is by the director himself. He sounds a lot like the singer from Creed, so consider yourself warned.
I'm sorry to say there is very little redeeming quality to this movie. The script was awful, as was the direction and principal acting.
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Alabama, not Georgia
This movie takes place in Alabama, not Georgia. Follows the story of a pair of New York Italians journeying through the south when they suddenly find themselves charged with a convenience store robbery and murder. One of their cousins (hence the title) Vinny comes down with his fiancée to defend the pair. The film's major theme involves Vinny overcoming not only the cultural gap that exists between him and the Alabama legal system, but also his inexperience with the law. Over the course of the film Vinny has many epiphanies, all of which impact the trial in various ways, some positively and some negatively; most of these involve at least a few comedic elements. One of the graces of this film is that it uniquely utilizes the local color of both Alabama and New York simultaneously -- not just accents, but also the norms of both regions are well represented. At times these references may border too close to stereotype for some, but ultimately they are within the spirit of the film.
Uprising (2001)
"Too Hollywood?"
Just 'cuz you can't do it, doesn't mean it wasn't / can't be done. Heck, *I* can do it. I can't do two at once, tho'...
http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/gallery/p463.htm "Jews and Jewesses shot from two pistols at the same time...."
I love reading about the resistance as in the Warsaw ghetto or Vilna, etc. This movie is very interesting... I'll have to ponder more.
Part of the issue will be, I think, that this movie represents a double-edged blade... One the one hand, it's David against Goliath (or, to skip the biblical metaphor, a much weaker good-guy / underdog against a much stronger BAD GUY) -- you WANT the good guy to win.
On the OTHER hand -- something that will probably be hard for lots of "politcally correct" people to take will be firearms. THEY'VE GOT GUNS and they're using them for GOOD! Some people will also have a hard time w/ religious aspects, but it's not prominent, it's more a "given and ignored".
The only thing... I WANT the good guys to win -- for the Jews to triumph, for the Nazis to be over-thrown by the people that they tried to exterminate -- and it's not that way. Sometimes real life doesn't measure up to fantasy, eh?
Unreal (1998)
This is it. 3d first person shooters were never the same.
This is the one game that altered the entire first person shooter game system. Yes there was Quake but this game altered everything with it's huge map display engine. Everyone else has followed in it's footsteps. Unreal was the first engine that I knew of, where the outdoor maps were huge. The ending sequence, where you final escape from Nai Pali, is literally cinema in real time. The Unreal engine generates all the effects you see right then and there as you leave the Skaarj mother-ship. I still love the game and I still play Unreal One all the time. Great tension release.
Killer Girl.
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
stupid
this movie had so many problems it is just stupid for example the part where he is in prison where he stabbed his hands. the scars would not just appear he would have to grow up with the scars causing another reality maybe it would be the same reality but he would have had the scars already and what about the part with the dynamite why did he lite it he should had just pulled out the fuse and said something else like he did before to him just this time make sure to say something else about tommy so he wouldn't end up so screwed up and what about the scene with the father they had the father choking him but last time I checked the father was only choking him because of what he said which was also the effect of when he changed his past how is that a part of his 1st life.