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Reviews
Bewitched (2005)
Seen once : not great. Seen twice : much better
I just got the "chance" to see Bewitched and I'm not sure what to think.
Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell make, in my opinion, a very good screen couple in a funny movie.
The main idea of remaking a classic show within a movie was brilliant ans very promising.
So what went wrong ? Nicole Kidman is a fantastic actress in dramas. And it's a good thing that she's trying more and more to do comedies because I think she's gonna be good at that too. But this time, she didn't have the material to play with. She barely had a funny line, and too few occasions to show her comic skills.
Will Ferrell had a little more chance, but unfortunately the story didn't help neither.
The major disappointment is what the writers did with the story : the scenes were not funny enough, with no link with each other, the characters needed at least a little development but we didn't have that here. Shirley McLane and Micheal Cane should have had better situations in order for their characters to exist in this movie instead of just stopping by to make screen presence.
So, it's a shame to build such a wobbly movie with such great tools.
Overall, I was bored sometimes but it's still watchable, only if you don't expect that much from it, and if I give it a 6/10, it's only for the actors and for encouraging Nicole Kidman to do comedies.
EDIT :
I just saw it another time, and I have to say that a lot of what I didn't like kind of worked this time, especially the jokes that I didn't find funny enough. I'm not saying that it's the best movie Nicole Kidman ever did, but it certainly is better than Stepford Wives. She tries different roles, and I'm sure she'll find the perfect comedic role to show the fun aspect of her personality.
Maybe when I saw Bewitched the first time I was expecting too much and hoped the characters would be like in the TV show. That's weird, so I also changed my rating from 6 to 8. Some moments could have been funnier, but if you just sit and enjoy the movie, it will do fine.
The Interpreter (2005)
Kidman + Penn + Pollack = Winning team
I've just seen The Interpreter in English and I loved it.
The acting :
Sean Penn does a great job (as always) portraying a Secret Service agent. He carries most of the movie on his shoulders and the result is great.
Nicole Kidman, my favorite actress, is once more absolutely stunning and very believable in the role of a UN interpreter. Sad to say, but since her breakup with who you know, she's done her best movies and best performances. I hope she'll carry on. Even if I'm blown by her talent and the way she looks, I'll add just a little comment on the moments where she has to speak French. Being French myself, I appreciated these scenes, even if she could have used a little help because it was almost hard to understand. A UN interpreter should be able to speak fluently, which was not the case here. I mean the pronunciation was OK but not enough for someone who does such a job. Let's say that she's as good as talking French that I am at writing English (I hear you laughing ...).
The story :
The movie was really great, and I have to thank those who did the writing because it's not the average movie it could have been, with the protector and the victim falling in love, kissing, etc ... I really liked the way the relationship developed. I've read other comments on this movie complaining about the understanding of some facts, on lack of characters development. Well, this is a 2 hours long movie, and not a minute is wasted. I think we had enough clue about the action to understand why a character did this or that.
Overall :
Great directing from Sydney Pollack, great movie, better than I expected, I would have given a 8/10, but instead I gave it a 10/10, 1 more point for the acting of Sean and Nicole, and 1 more point for having avoided the last scene with a over-used-kiss-goodbye.
Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Fun to watch, hard to review
I had to see this movie because of the main actors : I'm a huge Hugh Grant fan, and Sandra Bullock has the kind of charm that really works with me.
I expected this movie to be good, and in a way it was, in another it wasn't that much :
IT WAS because the duo Grant / Bullock works great, the chemistry is there and the lines are very funny. The dialogues are very good and the performance of Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock incredibly great, especially when they're together.
IT WASN'T because the story is not that original and the ending pretty obvious. Something is missing or badly developed. There's a lack of character development, the one of Hugh Grant, and the one of the rest of the cast. Maybe writer/director Marc Lawrence focused too much on the two main characters, forgetting to add any interesting other ones.
My problem is to balance the good and bad things about this movie (like in any movie review), and even if I really laughed which is good for a comedy, something was missing to make it a great movie like it could have been.
So, you need to see this movie without expecting nothing but funny situations. In my opinion, it's a humor closer to the one you'll find in a sitcom than the one of a movie.
Coupling (2000)
Steven Moffat is a genius !
Steven Moffat has created the best TV show in history of television. I am a big fan of Seinfeld and Friends, but they're pale in comparison.
This is the story of 3 guys and 3 girls and their sex lives. Nothing really new you'll say. Well, you don't know Jeff, apparently ! All the situations are extremely funny, and the great lines delivered with such talent by an incredible cast. Thumbs up to Jane Davies for choosing these people. I've watched all the episodes aired (I've even bought the first and second seasons in DVD) and the show is still great, maybe even funnier after 3 seasons.
So, do whatever you can to watch it, buy the DVDs, catch a rerun, smash you TV against a wall (well, maybe this won't help) but you have to see it.
I read a review on this site that said that acting was 10 times better and dialogues were 100 times better than Friends, well it's not true, I think it's 1000 times better than Friends (I've watched all the Friends episodes to date, so I know what I'm saying).
I see that there's an American remake of Coupling, I just hope it won't be the end of the British show(I have no expectations about the U.S. version, they should have shown the original episodes to American audiences).
Armageddon (1998)
You must be kidding me
Please, tell me people, when you find this movie good, you're joking, right ? Seriously, this is probably one of the worst movie ever.
The casting is OK, the special effects too. But the rest is awful ! The performance given by actors like Willis and Affleck (Kevin Smith should have kicked him in the balls at the beginning of Dogma for having done such a piece of crap one year after he made Chasing Amy) is painful to watch. And the story you'll ask ? What story ? Was there even an inch of it ? I don't think so.
Well, let's stop losing time reviewing such a waste of film. My piece of advice : avoid this movie, even if someone put a gun in your head, been shot is less painful and faster than this 2+ hours piece of junk.
Soapdish (1991)
Brilliant !
This is one of the best comedy ever ! The writing of this parody of soap is brilliant and the cast, well just look at the names of the cast and you'll understand why it is so great. If you're a Kevin Kline fan, he does (as always) an fantastic performance, and Robert Downey Jr is perfect. If you don't laugh while seen this movie, you don't have any sense of humor.
Army of Darkness (1992)
Bruce Campbell is THE Man !!!
* spoilers *
I've watched this movie several times, and each time it gets funnier. Bruce Campbell should have had an Oscar for this film and for what it does since the beginning of his career.
My favorite scene is definitely the one in the cemetery when he's fighting against the skeletons. This is one of the best scene I've ever seen. I laugh so hard my stomach hurts !
And the best thing is that the movie isn't scary at all, it's a funny film, and if some think that it lacks of realism, well, check this : a man goes in the past and helps fighting against an army of living deads... What did you expect ? A documentary film ? It's fictional, it's a movie, that's all.