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Steve C
Reviews
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
one of my favorite movies of the last few years
There's a lot to be said for a modern movie that's completely earnest. Being earnest is a big risk - you have a large cynical western audience ready to write you off as naive. Or at least this must be the judgement of producers and studios.
Movies like Amelie, Babe, and anything by Zhang Yimou (which constitute probably 3/4ths of my favorite movies of the last 5 years) are proof that there's a huge demand for honestly joyful and thoughtful entertainment.
Roger Ebert said that this movie hangs with you a long time after you see it...that's exactly my experience. Do not miss this movie in the theater if you have the ability to see it there.
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Listen up Lucas
Sorry to filter this through Star Wars - but if you threw a few gadgets in there and called it "Episode 1" we'd have the best SW film ever. It's been a year and a half and I guess I still haven't gotten over that atrocity...
But back to the film at had. Wow what an experience! I'm trying to think of an action movie I've seen that's better than this and I can't come up with one. The story was intriguing - the action wasn't just thrown in, and the characters' motivations all through the movie were natural (characters weren't just forced into action scenes for no reason).
Great acting all around, great plot, GREAT direction. It'd be a tough call between this and Traffic for best picture. Where do I pre-order the dvd? Give me more, Ang Lee! Excuse me while I bookmark his imdb page...
Chocolat (2000)
acting mostly good in spite of dialogue, plot, and esp DIRECTING
Judi Dench & Juliette Binoche were great, Lena Olin and most of the rest of the supporting cast were reasonably good. It's really amazing in the face of all the obstacles.
I tried to have an open mind walking into this movie. I saw the Cider House Rules and thought it was one of the worst movies I've seen in several years, but I thought I'd give Hallestrom another chance. Within a half hour it was clear that this film was the same random mix of plot devices without any consistency from scene to scene, sacrificing a consistent lighthearted tone in order to sprinkle in a few "serious" situations (domestic violence, etc) - I suppose because the director wants the film to seem "important". Yet even within the same scene, or a scene later the difficulties have been resolved.
(warning, spoilers follow) The film is filled with silly plot inconsistencies, I suspect because the director is more concerned with plot devices and cheap audience emotional manipulation (certainly the case in cider house rules) than any kind of story with "flow" or "unity". One sees this in almost every scene - but a few examples: 1) After the Lena Olin character is abused, the JB character starts philosophizing about her husband even though she's apparently spoken about 2 sentences to the guy. 2) questionable motivations are everywhere: for instance, JB wants to leave her entire investment in chocolate tools and goods because of this "north wind". That would be acceptable if we knew more about this "north wind", or the director had developed the story about her emotional attachment to it (but what can you do when you have 50 other stories to tell), but it seemed completely arbitrary and silly.
At the very least, go to the matinee, don't pay full price for this movie.
The Insider (1999)
wish I could give it a 20
This easily one of the top 3 movies I've ever seen. GREAT acting from top to bottom, a great story line, editing, directing, everything. Russell Crowe deserves all the success he gets after this film - he was BRILLIANT. I saw it toward the end of its run, and boy am I glad I caught it while it was still in theaters.
Also the movie poster is really cool, I'd highly recommend checking ebay or online stores if you're into that sort of thing.
Off to see Traffic...
Kikujirô no natsu (1999)
Initially promising, then breaks down into another weird-ass Japanese flick
I'm a big foreign/art film fan, so of course I try to stay open minded. But this Japanese weird stuff has got to stop.
The first 2/3rds of the movie are fairly interesting - the kid and a guy who's maybe him except older go in search for his mom.
Then for the last 1/3rd we get to see a string of scenes where weird people do random & silly things. It remind me of the Southpark PokeMon episode - Stan's parents watch the cartoon, and say "what the hell is this supposed to mean?", and Stan's dad says "I don't know but somehow now I want to own all of the toys."
I have this hypothesis, and this movie bears it out pretty well. Japanese are really into being formal, nice, and hiding their emotions. Instead of actually dealing with the crisis, the old man gives the kid an toy which he says will make everything better. And then he orchestrates a whole bunch of crazy stuff to help the kid forget about what just happened, and the kid ends up happy. I see this pattern in Japanese movies.
I'm no psychologist, but somehow this doesn't seem to a good way of dealing with reality. The good Chinese movies that make it over here are at least good and at times brilliant, but the Japanese just throw suspense of disbelief out the window. I give it a 3.
Un divan à New York (1996)
some strange/corny dialogue, but I can't bring myself to give a JB film a bad score
I'm totally biased. Not objective or dispassionate. Juliette Binoche is my favorite actress of all time and every time I see her do anything on screen it's captivating. And William Hurt is one of my favorite actors. And the idea for the film was a very good one, however I think the french writer must have been resposible for most of the dialogue because a lot of it is nonsensical/out of place.
That said, nice little stories like these (not cheesy, just "light") are one of the resons why I love film. I think of Chacun Cherche son Chat for the epitome of what I'm talking about...I saw this with my gf (now wife) at the Kabuki in SF and we both had a great time.
GATTACA (1997)
The best kind of Sci-fi...
...is sci-fi that introduces new ideas. I really hate how kill-the-aliens -type movies seem to have taken over the genre.
A movie like this or Dark City comes around every once in a while and restores my confidence. Sci-fi is great when writers use the future (really I mean futuristic - it could be a long, long time ago in a...well you know) to explore some topic that is impossible using setting in the present.
And Gattaca is so interesting because of that. This really isn't all that far off, I'm sure I will see the type of problem described in this movie at least start to show itself toward the middle/end of my lifetime.
Plus the visuals were amazing...I love it when someone gives me a creative look at what the future looks like (Dark City was great) and not just the same ol' bad-copy-of-Star-Wars look. It looked to me like Ayn Rand cover art.
I give it a 9 out of 10, and among recent sci-fi movies, I give it a 100 out of 10.
-Steve
Firelight (1997)
Actors good, script baaaaaaaaaaad
I am always willing to live with a little bit of cheese in a romance flick, but this movie was over the top. Sophie Marceau was great considering what she had to work with, other actors were decent to good.
One reason people go to the theater to see movies is the "shared experience" -- today was a great example. The laughter kept building as the end neared, climaxing with the sister's line to S. Marceau at the funeral "love him for both of us" (as an aside, this after the writers expect us to believe that the sister suspected nothing after months and months of sex between the 2 main characters. They must have built the walls thick back then!).
Hey I didn't mind seeing a little T&A from S. Marceau though: those looks coupled with great acting skill make for a great movie...usually. Well maybe next time.