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Minyalad
Reviews
Poirot: Cards on the Table (2006)
Dreadful, despite the excellent cast
If there is one thing I hate, it is movies pretending to be based on books, which change the plot of said book. The change of murderess and heroine was bad enough, but what the heck motivated the script writer to insert gay porn into the story, and several gay men? They sure were not in the book. Agatha Christie rarely ever alluded to homosexuality in her books, and it is very easy to miss. Here, it comes with a sledge-hammer, and most certainly she would not have written such a plot. Now, if you want to make a movie about homosexuality in the 1930s, fine. Just don't call it "Agatha Christie" then.
Oh, and a note to writers of previous comments: This is not a "politically correct" thing, to insert random gay people into stories where they don't belong. Politically correct is treating (in this case) gay men decently. Randomly inventing pseudo-gay stories to "pepper up" a story that does not have them is not "politically correct" -- it is crap.
So, a note to the producers: If you want to make movies about homosexuality in the 1930s, fine. If you want to make movies from Agatha Christies books, also fine. Just stop mixing up the two.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Not worth watching at all
So, lemme see what vote this move deserves:
* 10 is for excellent movies, movies one wants to see again and again. Well, this wasn't it: -1
* Parent and kids have to run from something really, really bad - what an original storyline: -1
* We learn nothing whatever about this really, really bad thing, despite being given a few quite interesting clues. No back-story at all: -2
* I usually like kids in such movies, but this one was annoying: -1
* Ending that was at the same time utterly predictable (and I am not talking about what is already in the book, but about the movie storyline) and yet utterly unbelievable: -2
* Plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon: -1
* Annoyingly pathetic moments, several of them: -2
... Errrr ... can I please have a new rating system here? I am down to 0 and not even finished! No? OK, then let's try something else:
* There are worse movies than that one - not many, but some. +1
* The tricks are reasonably decent: +1
* Miranda Otto: Uh, well, can't really call that a part, can you? 0
* Tim Robbins: Would get this movie one point if his end hadn't been so pathetic: 0
* Tom Cruise: Has been a lot better in other movies: 0
I guess I can only recommend ID4 then - same subject, much better movie. Even if that one has a bit too much pathos, at least it isn't so pathetic.