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rogergotch
Reviews
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
Soggy Naan
Where does Osama figure in this? Kate Hudson looks 50 plus years old as a brunette and flabby. Apparently the young Pakistani man is a genius despite being a few thousand years behind western civilization. Kiefer Sutherland limps through his role like a crippled former operative. Appalling.
Skyggenes dal (2017)
Watching grass grow
Incredibly boring film. How does a boat with no means of propulsion create a wake floating down a river? The woo is strong in this film. Also why does a little boy go around half naked in a freezing landscape?
The Woman in the Window (1944)
The Molten Falcon
We are to believe a pudgy 5 and half foot sedentary middle-aged man can kill a much larger six foot man and carry his body down two flights of stairs and stuff him in the back of a car an throw him over a fence. Really? Gee that must have some really good brandy! I want some of that. Also we have the highly intelligent Professor goofing up making mistakes everywhere, like an very absent-minded Professor. Still I enjoyed the sets and the cars and cops in this rather lavish and well-shot studio production. Indeed, bring back Gentlemen's Clubs, Bigly I say. A safe place for men with no harlots trying to fleece them. The good old days.
The Big Short (2015)
excellent educational movie with an all-star cast
Christian Bale brings his best intensity to his role as a Wall Street savant. As a serial poor investor myself...well my book learning is top grade but I have a terrible track record, I have lost hundreds of thousands. But there is always 'next time'. In financial markets opportunities appear and disappear on a weekly basis. Patterns repeat. History repeats. Humans are mortal creatures with short memories. One feature of the American housing market is that mortgagees can hand back to the keys to their bank and bail out anytime they want. We can't do that here Down Under, your house debt is still your house debt whether you live there or not. But if you like your house and want to live there long-term it does not matter if the market goes up or down, if you can meet your payments well in 20 or 30 years time you will have it payed off and have a valuable asset. That is what I would advise any young person. Its a great feeling having your own house with a backyard and frontyard. You can have cats and or dogs, a garden, anything you want. Its your place ! Its the best investment you can ever make for yourself, your own place. It really doesn't matter if you buy at the top of the market and then the housing market crashes, 20 years later you will be winning Bigly. Most people like me, well I buy lottery tickets, but I really don't need to be rich, just enough money to pay the bills is enough for me. Being average is a gift. Money could buy me love but not happiness. Paul McCartney was so wrong about that, money can buy you love. A old short ugly bloke becomes immediately loveable to women when he has a hundred million dollars in the bank, funny about that. Shout out to Woody Allen and Danny De Vito!
Silent Running (1972)
What would you do to save the Earth?
I first saw this movie on Australian TV in my teens in the late 70's. A riveting production with a seminal message. Bruce Dern owns this movie, a gentle soul forced to take drastic action to save the last remnants of Earth's plants. Terribly poignant, just thinking about this movie makes me cry. I would rate Dern's poker match with 'the robots' as one of the most iconic sci-fi movie interludes ever, up there with Dave's interaction with Hal in '2001 a Space Oddity' and Luke with Obewan Kneebone in the 'Star Wars' alien bar scene. To think this movie was made in 1972, just a couple of years after global warming was recognized as a threat to the Earth and of course in the middle of a Cold War. Now if humans are the most important animals on the Earth and must be put before all others, to the ultimate exclusion of all other plants and animals... Well we be just left with a Mouse Utopia in breakdown. Look up the Mouse Utopia experiment. This is an educational movie that asks a simple question. As Carl Sagon said, the Earth is a blue dot in our solar system and the only known planet with life in our galaxy. Are we going to take care of it or destroy it? Bruce Dern was typecast as a taciturn cowboy throughout his acting career, but this is his tour-de-force. "So Huey, do you want another card or are staying put with your hand?". Indeed if you observe young people these days they are more engaged with their devices than they are with other living things, sadly. A prescient movie with a powerful theme, unforgettable. Somebody at the Academy give Bruce Dern an Oscar before it is too late.
Red River (1948)
You yella bellied chicken-livered hombres, how dare you review this title before me!
An iconic Wayne/Ford Western. The diminutive co-star protagonist what's his name...Did not cut it for me. Clift Montgoosebumps or something. Who would go on to become a prescription drug addict and die an early death. Well of course such a simp would be no match for Wayne in the showdown so the script called for Wayne to get shot first so he only had one good arm and still whipped the Greenhorn good. Cliff Montgomery would go on to 'star' in the 'Misfits' in the early sixties along side an equally disturbed and pill-addled Marilyn Monroe, they were both dead within a year. Meanwhile John Wayne churned out more quality Western movies, won an Oscar for 'True Grit' and put Glen Campbell and Hush Puppies on the map.
Rocky III (1982)
The prettiest heavyweight boxer ever
Rocky has a very straight nose for somebody who gets hit in the face for a living. In this outing he suffers a bruising - poetic justice for neglecting his Step-Brother Pauley. I mean he stole Pauley sister offa him, rose to world acclaim and wealth and just left Pauley in the gutter. Its nice to be important but its important to be nice ! Rocky learns the hard way. Somehow Mister T got time off from the A-team to film this. Mister T never liked pretty boys like 'face' and Rocky. Too pretty. Hulk Hogan is a scream, throwing Rocky around like a toothpick. Pro wrestling is showbiz but those big men are seriously strong. Burgess Meredith's 'Mickey' was zeroed-out giving this sequel an added emotional impact, but the actor himself would go on to live to 90 and pass away in 1997.
Mimic (1997)
Creepy in a good way
I saw this movie on the big screen with my Dad on release here Down Under. This was Mira Sorvino's golden years, cut short from certain Hollywood moguls. Shares some tropes from Korean film 'The Host'. Great tension and premise. Even when grimed up and battered, Mira is a pretty and a brave heroine. Mira is the daughter of Paul Sorvino of gangster film fame. She got all the looks that he missed out on. I am not going into Woody Allen on this...
Make It Happen (2008)
She works hard for her money so you better treat her right
A wonderfully nubile young Mary Elizabeth Winstead glows is her role as a shy but talented dancer. I am not sure Mary Elizabeth performed all of her dance scenes or had a double, but the point is probably moot. Quite a credible movie, unlike 'Flashdance' who had Alex as a welder (as if) by day and a dancer by night. Dancing is a hard career path, like a pro athlete, riddled with injuries and of short duration. Most dancers and pro athletes are done by their early thirties, and there are limited coaching and commentating roles after that. This movie is sort of a G-rated 'Showgirls' with a beautiful brunette instead of a beautiful blonde in the lead role, and it is less tacky. OK it is light and fluffy but that is just what the world needs now.
Rocky (1976)
A love story
Its funny (ironic) how boxers hug each other after trying to kill each other in the ring. A matter of respect. This movie released in 1976 has world champ going in at 6'1'' and 210 pounds against a 5'9'' 190 pound Bronx punk with a five inch reach disadvantage, and we are expected to believe he went the distance. Even by mid-seventies standards these were very small men for the heavyweight boxing division. Middleweights at best. Perhaps if it was set in the 1950's it would have been credible. Mohamed Ali or George Foreman could have beaten up both these diminutive 'heavyweights' with one hand tied behind their back. Notice how Sly employs tiny fellow actors to make himself look taller by comparison. There are lies, distortions, statistics - then there are movies. Same difference. Burgess Meredith peaked as the 'The Penguin' in the camp 1960's Batman TV series, but this movie got him a tidy retirement cheque. Still on the emotional front we see Rocky making all the front running pursuing a woman, which is true to life. Men do all the chasing, women do all the rejecting. He has to get beaten to a pulp by the World Champ to win her love, a perfect example of modern relationships.
Rob Roy (1995)
Liam Neeson has a certain set of specific skills
This time he is dressed in a kilt and tartan but its the same Liam. He is done wrong but gets his revenge in the end. Hollywood has always liked big men, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, John Wayne. They fill the screen and tower over their opposition. But only four per cent of the male population are 6'2'' plus. This is perhaps why the 5'7'' Tom Cruise is a more credible hero and has to work harder to be the movie hero he is, even doing his own stunts like Jackie Chan. Tim Roth is typecast as a somewhat effete thug, having played gun wielding gangsters in a number of films, and seems to draw on Sir Percival from the 'Scarlet Pimpernel'. Which featured a wonderful Andy McDowell. As for fight, Tim could have easily sliced Liam's fingers off just by jerking his rapier out. Just silly license, like walking over hot coals. Sadly its a deal breaker. Liam has a very specific set of skills but swordplay is not one of them. As for people who say this is a great movie sword play, go back to Basil Rathbone versus Errol Flynn is the 1930's in 'Robin Hood'. Or even Mandy Pattinkon versus Dread Pirate Roberts in the late eighties in the 'Princess Bride'. Let alone Burt Landscaper and his acrobatic mute buddy in films like the 'Crimson Pirate' or Kirk Douglas in 'The Vikings'. I mean, Liam could not even train a dog in 'The Grey'. He is no good without a cache' of firearms. One last thing. Scotland is very cold and men would freeze getting around in skirts and tank tops. They were wearing animals furs and hides for survival. It is an artic climate not tropical. Yes a very specific set of skills it takes for survival in those climates, not dresses and a patch or tartan.
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
Scott of the Egotartic
John Mills would have been a small boy when Scott attempted getting to the absolute South Pole and no doubt grew up imbued in the legend of 'Scott of the Antarctic'. Mills is perfectly cast, an enthusiastic and competitive British explorer keen to claim the South Pole for King and Country ahead of his Northern European rivals. He is ruthless in his quest, sacrificing beasts of burden and his crew men along the way and ultimately himself all to be the first in something. A hero of the early Twentieth Century when male sacrifice was glorified in two World Wars, he is now seen as a somewhat tragic figure. Scott himself was no strapping spring six foot chicken when he went on this expedition but culled all but the strongest men from his crew for the final push. These days it is one of rivals, Earnest Shackleton, who outshines his feats, as a leader and navigator. Shackleton met great great hardship in his exploration too, his ship trapped and crushed by ice. He made an incredible expedition in arduous conditions with one of the ship's small boats with a small handpicked crew to find help at Elephant Island. He knew where he had to go to find human help and it was far from easy. Consequently, all his crew were recovered alive. A truly heroic effort ! I know who I would rather go camping with. The man who sacrifices all for nothing or the man who brings all of his crew back home alive. Which Scout Master would you want to follow?
Man Without a Star (1955)
Iconic Kirk Douglas at his finest.
This is a historical film about when the great plains of the US were being carved up and owned via barbed wire fences. Kirk is an experienced cow poke drifter who eschews the cordoning off of the plains, he stands for Freedom, as still the USA does to this day. Kirk's gun play in this movie is astounding, he must have done a lot of practise. The theme song is emblematic of Kirk's character. He may not have a place to call home but he has a code of ethics. Clint Eastwood films of the 1960's would traction on this in Spaghetti Westerns. The stoic loner who will go against all odds for his moral code. Surely one of the most under-rated Western movies. I mean John Wayne just had to turn up and be himself on set, Kirk had to act. And boy could be twirl a six shooter!
Marathon Man (1976)
Is it safe?
An amazing thriller on a number of levels. The under-rated Roy Scheider did this film just before or after 'all that Jazz' and was at his mean and lean best. Casting is superb, Dustin and Roy make very credible brothers. The masterful Sir Laurence Olivier plays against type in a big way. The urbane William Devane would go on after this role to play a number of dubious characters both on the big and small screens, perhaps being typecast after this blockbuster. Amazing sets, notice how grimy Dustin's New York apartment is, right down to the dirty door handles and light switches. All in all its the same old story - good versus bad, heroes and villains. It has ever been thus. Without a bad guy you can't have a good guy. This film actually has Hitchcock overtones with the chase scenes, like 'North by Northwest', and the premise of an unwitting everyman drawn into a deadly international conspiracy. Lastly, this film serves as an important land-bridge from the carnage of WW2 to the present day. It was made some 32 years after the end of WW2 and yes there were still Nazi criminals getting around abroad then (see 'Boys from Brazil'), funded by stolen Jewish gold. No its not safe, but its one great film.
Black Rain (1989)
A hard rain is gonna fall.
Michael Douglas channeling his Iconic Dad's presence. Yes he is his Dad's boy AND has the Chin dimple to prove it. No doubt one of his best films. Although an extremely laconic underplayed by Andy Garcia stole the film, who could not love his character? He was just like, whatever. And his assassination in the film brought tears to my eyes. It is a great film and we can see respect for law and order from both sides. For without law and order we would just be animals in the jungle. Of a number of Michael Douglas blockbusters in his prime back in the eighties and nineties, he did hid Dad proud. From the Streets of Francisco to Fame ! Go Michael Douglas you good thing. A screen legend just like his Dad, he will never be forgotten.
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Shallow Baz film again
Toby macquire is back as spidey but without superpowers. just a creeper. De crapio is equally capricious and all the actresses are too old for him, he always trades them in after they turn 20. Baz is an untalented director of fluff. Why producers stump up money for him is beyond me. If this is a seven the Cotton Club should be a forty.
Eureka (1983)
therasa russel stole this movie
Whether it be prancing about in lingerie or dressed up in period costumes.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Tame the Shrew
Frances McDormand reprises her role as an ugly anti-social suburban frump yet again. Causing Woody Harrelson to get cancer and cough blood in her face. I would rather be fed through a wood chipper than watch this movie again.
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Journalists and Politicians play book
Never let a good crisis go to waste. Here Down Under a young aspiring politician by the name of Bill Shorten, he must have watched this film. He used a Tasmanian mine tragedy to propel his career. Two men trapped deep underground, Bill was front and centre in front of cameras every day milking it for everything it was worth. In the end the men were rescued and Bill had a shot at becoming Prime Minister. He was certain to win, as was Hillary...The polls said so ! But in a stroke of poetic justice he lost and resigned in defeat.