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FrankTG
Reviews
The Ninth Gate (1999)
A great Thriller
I love Polanski movies, and this one didn't disappoint me. Albeit a bit over-long, I really was mesmerized by Johnny Depp's convincing portrayal of a sleazy book dealer who is hired by an eccentric occult book collector to find two copies of a same book, supposedly written by a devil worshiper (what else?).
The most fascinating about this movie is the camera work and the dialog. The story telling is really well done, one simply is grabbed by the intrigue in which Depp is immersed while searching for the books, and the riddle they seem to form.
I give this movie four-and a-half stars, out of five, for the fine performances, the story and the fine direction.
Tosca: In the Settings and at the Times of Tosca (1992)
Excellent!!!
Puccini's Tosca is probably one of the most famous and well known opera in the Western world. This Italian production with Placido Domingo and Catherine Malfitano is simply superb: Malfitano is extremely well as Tosca, her dramatic soprano voice has always delighted me; and Domingo's Mario Cavaradossi is well played, although I'm more partial to Jose Carrera's Cavaradossi. Raimondi is excellent as the evil Scarpia, he is simply enjoying himself playing the villain. And as always, Puccini's melodic and well orchestrated music is so much a pleasure to listen.
The production values are very well done, giving the opera a you're there atmosphere. I've always liked this opera, and this made-for-TV production has everything to recommend it to opera buffs such as myself.
Robot Jox (1989)
Cheesy action-drama with cool robots!
This under-budgeted film has the kind of stuff I like to see in sci-fi movies: A cool premise (two factions using giant Mech-warrior type robots to fight for land or politics in an arena), two-dimensional characters and great miniature filming!
The story's about a soon-to-be-retired jock who drives giant robots and slugs it out with the other faction's jocks and robots. He is unwillingly replaced by a novice girl he cares about or something, and she tries to fight the old jock's nemesis. Before this guy kills the girl, the old jock gets a chance to mount a robot and fight his enemy until both robots are done with.
The fight sequence are nice to see, the miniature filming is top-notch, and the story breezes through without been noticed (believe me, it's not important enough to notice)... The space-fighting scene at least has an honest-to-God true fact about space fighting: no sound!! (for the first time in Sci-fi movie history, except of course for "2001: A space odyssey", but they had no space fighting in "2001...").
For sure, a fun grade-B movie.
The Blue Max (1966)
World War I flying adventure, so-so drama...
The Blue Max was the name given to the Pour Le Merité award given by the Prussian Kingdom to officers that displayed outstanding feats of valor in the battlefield. This story's about the drive of one pilot to obtain that award at any price, and to demonstrate he (of humble birth) was as good as any aristocrat.
The aerial photography and aerial choreography is the best I've seen yet regarding WWI air combat, and probably more exiting that many air combat movies done. The ground battle scene is also very well done, although it had some historical mistakes. The music by Jerry Goldsmith is soooo good, that you can feel the thrill of flying just by hearing the score. Unfortunately, character development is somewhat on the lower level than the rest of the production, and it's not easy to understand Bruno Stachel's (George Peppard) motivations until almost the very end. Loved the movie for the production values and the adventure part. It is not good drama, though.
La momia azteca contra el robot humano (1958)
Ridiculous trash made-in-Mexico
Despite having a very pretty leading lady (Rosita Arenas, one of my boy-crushes), the acting and the direction are examples of what NOT to do while making a movie.
Placed in southern Mexico, Popoca, the Aztec Mummy (real Aztecs, by the way, DID not made mummies) has been waken up by the lead characters and starts making trouble in Mexico City suburbia, during the first movie (The Aztec Mummy). In this second part, the leading man and woman want to find th mummy and put it in its final resting place (a fireplace would have been my first choice...)
Into this appears The Bat, a criminal master-mindless stereotype of a criminal genius who creates a "human robot" (some idiot inside a robot SUIT) to control Popoca and (get this) take over the world. The final match between the robot and the mummy is hilarious, some of the worst choreography ever witnessed. The funniest part is that this movie was made and released by a serious Mexican movie studio!
The acting is just as awful hearing the movie in Spanish as it is in English (they dubbed the over-acting!). You should watch this movie through MST:3000. The comments are even funnier.