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Reviews
Queen of the Damned (2002)
Amazing! The soundtrack, I mean...
This awful movie has one of the best soundtracks ever. Of course, if you don't like Korn (or that sort of music) you might find it awful too. Davis' songs are so cool it's a shame they have to be connected to this film.
Fun fact: What drove me to watch this was the aforementioned soundtrack. I hadn't seen "Interview with the vampire", so I presumed that in order to understand "Queen..." I should see the previous one. I felt it like I was doing homework in a way, so I approached the movie without high expectations and, what do you know, I really liked it. Then it was time to watch "Queen..." and, well, this just plain stinks.
There's no reason to see this film, just buy the soundtrack.
True Crime (1999)
Boring, slow and cliched.
*****WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD*****
This movie is slow, very slow. So many cliches, so many smart-mouth characters and a final car chase scene that's just hilarious (not to mention that he was DUI, something that seems to be okay if you are trying to save a life... that, of course, if you don't kill someone with your car while speeding and drunk).
Although Clint Eastwood is in great shape for his age, he seems to be a little bit old to play a womanizer. He'd be more adequate portraying a man with prostate problems. I really don't know what he was thinking when he agreed to do this one.
If you add some fade-out's with loud music in the background you can turn True Crime into a mediocre TV movie. Have trouble sleeping? Get in bed, put this one on the VCR and wait a few minutes... no pills, no magical solutions, just a piece of crap that will have you snoring in no time.
Lola rennt (1998)
TOP 250:#58??????? What the...?
I have to say I did not like this movie as much as most of the people that wrote reviews here, but I didn't hate it either. I've seen MUCH better films in my life, and certainly this one does not deserve to be among the first 100 in the TOP 250. I wonder if it even belongs there.
It's an OK movie; that's if you like films mostly based in style more than story, which i do, as much as I enjoy the sobriety of a Woody Allen movie that's usually based on the writing.
Does not deserve all the praise and hype, but it's worth a look.
PS: I HATED the soundtrack, it made the movie look like a 90-minute long music video. I thanked God for the few moments when the music stopped.
PS2: As a member of the Spanish-speaking part of the world let me tell you something to all of you who are afraid of subtitles... a dubbed movie is a ruined movie, and I have experience in that matter. I AVOID AT ALL COSTS to watch a dubbed movie, and that is if it's in a language I don't understand. If it's in English (the other language I decently speak besides, of course, Spanish) I just DON'T watch it. I wait until I find it in its original language. You can't judge someone's acting when you're not listening to his/her real voice. With a decent dubbing, Demi Moore seems like a good actress for example... and maybe in that case is a good thing, but I like to know the awful truth.
Bowfinger (1999)
Avoid it.
One of the reasons why I watched this movie was the high rating here at IMDB (6.9 by the time I'm writing this), and the cast full of big names. Don't let that deceive you; if you want to watch a good Hollywood satire try to catch reruns of "Action", one of the greatest shows of this season, that, unfortunately, got the axe too soon (it was too good to be on network TV, I guess). Once you've seen Jay Mohr as Peter Dragon you'll never laugh at any other of these "behind the scenes of a movie" type of film.
4/10 (and I'm probably being generous)
Snake Eyes (1998)
Bad and boring...
Nicolas Cage is probably one of the most overrated actors I know. I don't think i liked any of his movies... well, maybe Con Air, but it is Malkovich who steals the show in that one.
For this one he "imported" his Faceoff character (when he acts all "crazy") and the clothes too (when the movie starts he looks just like a pimp, just like Castor Troy).
The movie is boring, and Cage playing the "cool dirty cop who knows everything" makes you wanna walk away... "overactor" would be the right word to describe it. Look for the scene when he's trying to outsmart the boxer, it made me feel sorry for De Palma.
Gary Sinise is the only good thing about this movie. He's WAY more talented than Cage and it bothers me that most people have no idea who he is, while Francis' nephew is a "movie star". What an unfair world...
Save this one for one night you have absolutely nothing to do, and you might wanna use it as a sleeping pill... cause, believe me, this thriller will make you snore.
8MM (1999)
Dumb.
***MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Didn't like this movie at all. Not because it shocked me, although it can get pretty disgusting sometimes (that's not a problem, i have a hard stomach), but because the way I see it that's the only thing the director tried to do with the film... shock people. When you're "shocked" once or twice in a movie that can be good, i like it; when the director tries to do this almost ALL the time things get boring, uninteresting and incredibly exaggerated. There's a long list of things about this movie that I find ridiculous, but I won't waste my time writing them down. I watched this one on video, but if I were you I'd wait until it's on cable... not that bad for one of those nights were you have nothing else to do.
4/10
Alive (1993)
Not bad after all...
I live in Uruguay and i have been hearing about the "The tragedy of the Andes" ever since I was born. One day I decided to read the book and short after that this movie was released. I couldn't wait to see it, and when I did I was a little disappointed (as you always are when you've already read the book). If you really want to know everything about the accident, read the book.
Some thoughts and facts:
- The movie is faithfull to the book (of course, the book has much more information).
- The survivors had plenty of offers for a book deal, and they took the one that gave them almost not money at all because they didn't want their tragedy to become a shocking Stephen King-like novel with gore, etc. The book documents facts, it has no tear-dropping dialogue or 20/20-like lines.
Some points about other comments and critics:
- Yes, they were nice boys. They were the rugby team of the Old Christians School (I'm not translating the name of the school, that's the actual one), an English catholic school for boys only (at that time at least), private and expensive, where only high-class boys attended.
-Also to the previous point: Maybe none of the survivors looks exactly like Ethan Hawke, but, YES... some of them WERE blonde with blue eyes. Most people, especially in the US and Europe, tend to think that in Uruguay (a country with a weird name, i give you that)we all look like native-americans. PLAIN WRONG. Almost all of us are European-americans... the 95% of the population is white and the rest is black or else. As a matter of fact, this is the ONLY American (i mean, North, Central and Southamerica) country that has no native-american population at all. This territory had a very small population when it was conquered by Spain, and they were later killed by our government about 150 years ago (we are not proud of that, but that's the awful truth).
- Yes, it was a charter flight, not an airline flight, in an Air Force rented plane to carry the players and some relatives and acquaintances to Chile. (Remember: this was people with money and good social positions, therefore connections... and this is a small country).
- Yes, the avalanche DID take place.
- Yes, the Andes are nice (I myself flew over them twice, breathtaking sights, TRULY beautiful), but this movie was shot in the Canadian Rockies (hehe :)
Bottom line: you can't compress 72 days into two hours and give each one of the people involved enough screen time to understand the part they played in that complex society they constructed in order to survive. Some of the most interesting characters are barely mentioned in the movie. If you are really interested in knowing what happened in that ordeal, again, READ THE BOOK.