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Reviews
L'illusionniste (2010)
Bravo, Chomet! Encore.
People complain that nothing happens in this movie. As far as people living out their daily routines and engaging in minor encounters is 'nothing', nothing ever happens in any of Tati's film. I do not understand why so many Tati fans are so disparaging of this film. Perhaps their expectations were nothing short of a great commercial success followed by a Tati revival?
This film is no betrayal, it fits in perfectly with the body of Tati's work. It is criticized for being overly sentimental. While it is sentimental, it is not overly so, and the same can be said of any of Tati's films, which all have a sentimental yearning for the simple life in the face of encroaching modernization. If this doesn't appeal to audiences in 2010s, then that's neither the fault of Tati nor of Chomet.
The Illusionist is wonderful conceived and executed. Each still is a work of art, and all of it, true to both Chomet and Tati, resists the 'in-your-face' approach of the modern world and the modern film. If you want noise and pace, watch Toy Story 3. Personally, I'd rather watch the Illusionist for a second time.
Columbo: Identity Crisis (1975)
My Two Cents'
I enjoyed this episode, but some bits bugged me. I found Columbo's treatment of the other policeman when he first arrived at the scene of the crime out of character. Columbo has always been very polite no matter how tense the situation, so it seems inconsistent to have him so abruptly order them around. Similarly out of character was his unabashed and persistent starting at the belly dancer. In the past he always found it impossible to look at semi-clad women, which endeared him far more to the audience. The fake Korean? Chinese? spoken. Probably jars more today than in the 70's but it's a bit sloppy not to have McGoohan learn a few lines phonetically. Finally: motive. What was the motive? A murder without a motive is like a riddle without an answer. Are we to assume it was just the arcane shenanigans of double agents, or did I miss something?
Columbo: An Exercise in Fatality (1974)
Plot Omissions
The discussion on the message board makes a big deal of how not all people tie their shoelaces the same way, and how the victim was left-handed. That was all made irrelevant because Columbo holds up the black shoes that the victim HAD tied and shows that, left or right-handed, that's how he does his loops. n'es pas? In answer to Julien-Neel from France. Columbo proved that the victim could not have tied his own sneaker shoelaces and thus did not dress himself. So if he was last seen in a suit, no-one but the murderer knew he had had a change of clothing. So, ironically, Milo's elaborate attempt at creating an alibi actually did the opposite. He revealed that he had information that only the murderer could have known. So that part makes sense to me. However i agree 100% with you when you ask why Columbo didn't simply check the phone records. In many of the other episodes prior to this one, Columbo mentions that he had checked the phone records, so the technology was up to it At least the writers could have got around that hole by having Columbo mention that the phone records had been lost due some gremlin or other in the system. Other than that, it was a good episode.
Reign of Fire (2002)
Beyond Scary
While the movie had a star cast and a bigger budget than many of the reviewers seem to believe, it could not rise above a weak plot. The idea that dragons could suddenly invade modern society is not the problem. Dragons are fantasy beasts and need no justification. But from that point on there has to be some consistency or the story loses substance. The over-riding plot hole is this: One is made to assume that modern weapons were of no use against the dragons. Why would guns have no effect on the dragons? Why would heavy artillery and explosives have no effect on the dragons? But here's the preposterous part: they can be killed by harpoons. A harpoon more effective than a cannon? Please. And the finally boss dragon? Killed by a crossbow with an explosive tip. Need i say more? Bad beyond scary.
Zanna Bianca (1973)
terrified a child
My mother took me to this movie at the drive-in when i was around seven years old, which is thirty years ago. She had no idea a family movie would be so violent. My clearest memory was of the boy's father's face of pain as he was stabbed in the stomach and killed. This image haunted me for weeks. I had learned that I lived in a world where a person might stab my father at anytime. How could I stop them? How could my father protect himself? You must realise that this stabbing is not fantasy to a seven-year old. It is as real as witnessing an actual event, and has no place in a child's innocent mind. It is sad that we still do not understand the impact that bringing violence into the lives of our children has both on our children and our society. If only parents would protect their children from images of violence with the same vigor that they protect them from images of nudity and sex.
The Mangler 2 (2002)
one of the ten worst movies made
This movie only scored 1.6 out of ten. which makes it in the bottom ten movies ever in IMDb's rating. for some reason this fact is not recorded on IMDb's worst 100 movies list. perhaps someone knows why this is. In any event it was truly an excellent movie, in my opinion and should have come in the top ten movies of all time. There are a few goof in the movie though. there biggest one being that the opening credits were not immediately followed by the closing credits. however after 80minutes of playing the fool, the director finally realised the gravity of the goof and corrected the error, allowing us to settle down to watch far more talented productions such as the shopping channel.