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bjsteve
Reviews
Barcelona (1994)
Hilarious if you get it
This certainly seems to be one of those movies that some people just don't get. It's a dialogue based movie, you won't see much happening as far as plot.
But the dialogue is among the funniest I've ever seen, albeit subtle. There are loads of classic lines.
But outside of the dialog there is virtually nothing else going on. If the humor is not up your alley it's going to be excruciating.
But for me, one of the top five movies of the nineties.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Silly and Unsubtle
There was not much I liked about this film, outside of the first half-hour or so. I had very little problem with the plot alterations for the sake of converting the book to film, I think they did an admirable job with that.
My concerns with the film as compared to the book were more about the feel and atmosphere. Using Merry and Pippin as little more than comic relief? A clumsy, pointless love scene between Strider and Arwen? Saruman as a B-movie bad guy? Countless teary and dreadfully unsubtle cornpone scenes of loyalty and friendship? It felt like they took the outline of the standard Hollywood movie and happened to find bits of The Fellowship of the Ring to shove into the appropriate places (except for having an actual ending of course).
You can change the plot to fit it into a film, but when you change the whole feeling until the only recognition is plot bits and character names, you have a loser in my book.
Made (2001)
Very Funny
I found this movie gut-busting funny--a very similar sense of humor to the also Favreau scripted Swingers. Like Swingers, there was an underlying dramatic plot beneath the main humorous plot, but it didn't really work as well in Made. But if you liked Swingers, this movie is definitely worth it for the laughs.
Lakeboat (2000)
Another great Mamet adaptation.
Reminded me a lot of another Mamet play adaption to a non-Mamet directed film -- Glengary Glen Ross. Completely dialog driven, extremely funny in a non-punchline kind of way, very subtle. But much lighter theme.
I thought Tony Mamet wasn't completely up to the par of the other actors which held things back but still a great film.
Baraka (1992)
Overly Earnest
This film, though truly inspired at times, was too often weighed down by heavy handed politically correct messages. We all know that the holocaust was bad, and so are sweatshops. I believe a little subtlety and possibly a sense of humor would have went a long way in this film.
That being said, some of the scenes were beautiful, despite sometimes feeling like a remake of Koyaanisqatsi.
Titus (1999)
Overblown and silly
This movie was a good example of why the broad, exaggerated style of Broadway does not translate well to movies. Julie Taymor should have toned it down about 4 notches. But instead she took every opportunity to overdramatize and the result was a puffed up, silly piece of self-indulgence. This resulted in even the most tragic scenes (of which there were plenty) coming off nearly humorous as caricatures of themselves.
The movie was slightly redeemed by some good acting, especially by Harry Lennix.