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Reviews
All Mine to Give (1957)
3 Hankie For Sure
This film use to be on television all the time in the 60's and now hardly ever. It came on just a few hours ago and I immediately sat down to watch it as I wondered if it would be as good as I remembered it to be. It was actually better as I picked up on a lot of things I may have taken for granted.
I wont go into what has already been said.... sad movie that starts you tearing up mid way through right to the end. Towards the end when eldest brother is delivering his youngest sister to her new home he stops to look in the window of one of the other families where another brother has been taken in. The brother is playing cards with his "new" sister with the parents in the background sitting talking and doing things. The reflection on the window is of him looking in, the sled with his sister in the background, and then you see him leave and start to walk up the road dragging the sled behind. Wow.... this scene was so powerful you wanted to ball right then. Amazing film making and score...definitely more appreciated now than before.
16 Blocks (2006)
My rating says it all...
I am not a Bruce Willis fan and only purchased this DVD as it was filmed in Toronto and it was very very cheap.
For me, and the only main comment I have is, if he was going to testify against cops, is it really a good idea for cops to be holding him, transporting him to the court for him to testify. Wouldn't he have been sequestered somewhere else like a hotel room or private residence?? Someone in previous comment said that they should have gotten into a cab to take them to the courthouse and been there in less than 10 minutes
yes, I totally agree, except, the closer they got to the court house, do you not think the cops would be checking the cabs including the trunk. I only got 50 minutes into this before I bailed
. Oh so bad, very very bad.
The Brave One (2007)
Female "Death Wish".... SPOILERS
Jodie Foster plays a radio show host who talks about her city, New York, the sounds the city makes and she loves the city about as much as she loves her fiancée David played by "Lost's" Naveen Andrews. As they are walking their dog, they are attacked in Central Park (at night!!!). David dies and she is in a coma for 3 weeks before she wakes and has to begin the long road not just to recovery but acceptance that her life will never be the same. She has to accept that fear has now become a major factor in her life, one she has never felt before.
Sorry, but I still see a lot of "Death Wish" in the movie. Totally revenge driven, Jodie goes from a fun loving, no fear person to a traumatized woman scared to go out of her apartment. When she does get the nerve, her first stop is a gun shop, and as soon as she purchases the gun, illegally mind you, the vigilantisms begins. Everything is too easily done, the killing on the subway is totally unrealistic. We are talking NYC, the city that doesn't sleep
I seriously have never been on the subway there when the trains have not been bustling and that has been in late evening too. Even when she is walking out of the station, there would have been video cameras on the platforms or near the entrances/exits. Everything falls into place, when she gets injured there is help,her interaction with the police detective played by Terrance Howard, I don't want to give too much away, I just feel the movie is somewhat flawed with too many holes and convenient circumstances occurring.
Jodie's performance is without question, totally remarkable. Her performance is on my list for AA consideration for sure, definitely worthy. She is someone that the new kids on the block should model themselves after. What amazes me is she has acted since infancy, moving to all aspects of her craft with respect and dignity and so smoothly without any of the "problems" we have been seeing lately in many of the other young performers. She left the business for her education and returned as if she had never left. Very few child actors have succeeded in doing that. She is not pursued by the media; and she has kept her personal life totally private. This lady is a classy act(ress)!
El baño del Papa (2007)
Not great, but very watchable and enjoyable.
This was one of the main films I wanted to see this year at the Toronto Film Festival due to the rave reviews on this site. I am glad I did but in my estimation did not deserve a 9 or 10 rating.
It's 1988 and a small very poor Uruguayan town is in a papal frenzy, Pope John Paul II is coming! The citizens are concerned with what will be needed to accommodate over 50,000+ visitors and be pleasing to his holiness. Food and drink is on most of their minds, but Beto, has the after effects fully in his mind but just needs the money to build a toilet without going into debt like most of the other villagers.
One of the main theme which runs through this movie is that most of the village men are smugglers, that is their lively hood. The border between Uruguay and Brazil is right there, supplies are available in Brazil which are not in Uruguay. There is also a cat and mouse game with the head honcho of the border patrol who also wants his cut along with everyone else.
I think the story could have moved a lot faster in the first 40 minutes but they were getting us acquainted to the characters, village and how things work (smuggling) in their neck of the woods so to speak. The use of the hand held cameras was awkward at times (assuming this due to the jumpiness) but sort of reminiscent of how the TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street" was filmed. This movie was very well done, you bond with the characters fairly fast. Very few of the principal actors were real professionals, many were villagers of the area they were filming in. I doubt this film will be in my top pick of this years films, BUT, it did have a very charming quality, beautiful scenery and totally worth seeing.