Change Your Image
catalina_140
Reviews
Catacombs (2007)
low budget
A young woman arrives from the US to Paris, visiting her sister. She enjoys night life of the European capital going to a party in the Catacombs, underground tunnels of Paris, where millions of death people are buried. The Catacombs are like a giant maze, dark, full of skeletons forming the walls, quite claustrophobic. At the illegal party set on the underground she listens to a story about a monster killing people in the Catacombs; next, her sister is killed by it, the police comes and ends the party, she is left behind and finds herself alone, locked, in the underground with the monster. She struggles to find a way out.
The Catacombs are just dark, dusty and full of skeletons, mostly skulls; there is not much variety as far as the design of the background is concern, the decors repeat every other scene. The acting is mediocre, the Romanian actors chosen for this movie are not of the best.
The ending is surprising. Actually, I think that the ending makes this movie worthy of watching. 4/10.
Death at a Funeral (2007)
quality humour
It's been ages since I had such a good time enjoying a movie. While other movies about dysfunctional families are so dramatic and serious, Death at a Funeral makes things brighter and funnier even at a funeral. The characters are not complex, but various - an accidentally drugged men, a hurting widow, a famous writer and his brother who cannot escape the other one's glorious shade, a hypochondric young men, a sever father, a sour old men, a homosexual blackmailer... and much, much chaos. This antithesis between life, with its different forms of manifestation, and death makes Death at a Funeral a juicy mild-black comedy.
Closer (2004)
no dignity left = real life ?
This was supposed to be about dysfunctional families, sick relationships, promiscuous lives. Instead, there is nothing but except vulgar language. Real life is more than anomic individuals and situation, is more than harsh descriptions of reality. I think that such a strong, yet delicate matter, as the relationship between men and women, could have been described without any lack of veracity, even omitting outrageous language. The actors are more than great, their talent does not need any exaggeration to fit the role. And what I found most disturbing is the fact that you cannot draw a final conclusion, a statement that makes you feel richer in a spiritual-cultural way after spending 104 min with it. Watch this movie if you think that women who curse are sweet!
Five stars from me, but only for such thing as the dignity of those actors.
Futurama (1999)
Why did it have to be cancelled?
Fry is normal pizza delivery boy of the year 1999 with a lousy job and his girlfriend had just dumped him for a better man. He has nothing to live for when he accidentally gets frozen in science lab on 31st of Decemeber 1999 and wakes up in the year 3000. He finds his great-great-...-great grandson, a mad old scientist, and works, that's funny, as a delivery boy, but this time he delivers different stuff with a space ship in outer space. His team at work are his best friends: Leela - a cyclopean human mutant, Bender - probably the most complex character, a bender robot, full of vices like drinking problems or stealing, doctor Zoidberg - a crustacean human doctor (if you would ask me, he is the funniest), Amy - a Chinese girl born on Mars and heir of one hemisphere of the planet, and Hermes - a Jamaican bureaucrat (that's funny, bureaucracy continues to extend even more in the 31st century).
The comic characters are not as strong as they were in the other Matt Groenig's creation, The Simpsons, but Futurama is more fluid, more dynamic, very stupid, but still smart and ironic. I really don't understand why this show has been cancelled, I'm looking forward to next year's announced production.
Bee Movie (2007)
I would have expected for more
With such great actors in the cast, you might have thought Bee Movie would be so much different from other animation movies. Instead, the same old story - a single bee from the beechive has the revelation of their well planed but still boring life, so it tries to have a different one. It goes in the city, talks to a young woman, and eventually it even sues humanity for stealing their honey. If Antz or A Bug's Life are about animal societies without changing much of the way the little bugs really live, Bee Movie presents bees driving cars, bees able to talk to humans. You might find it funny, take your children with you if you want to go see it.
The Notebook (2004)
perfect love story
It's absolutely amazing. This love story has everything a true love story needs - it's got true feeling, love surviving distance and time, purity.
Allie is a 17 years old rich girl in the '40s spending summer time in the country side when she falls in love with Noah, a simple, poor young men. They share their summer of love, but, as expected, Allie's parents don't agree their daughter relationship. The years pass by and, just before Allie's wedding with a fine young healthy gentleman, the odds bring back Noah in her attention. - This is a story and old man reads to an old woman suffering from Alzheimer's from a notebook in the present times.
The acting is also outstanding. Ryan Gosling plays wonderfully and Rachel McAdams is so full of life it makes you feel young no matter your age.
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
American story of Albert Camus' Stranger
The main character of the movie, Ed Crane, let's himself in the arms of fate, accepting everything that happens to him without even asking himself why. He kills his wife's boss and secret lover by mistake and then watches her convicted for a crime she didn't do. He doesn't show any emotion when he finds out that his wife, who has committed suicide in prison, was actually pregnant with her dead lover's child. By the end of the film, as he declares in the last minutes, he has no regrets what so ever. It's all about existentialism, the absurd of fighting back your own destiny and accepting it as it's given. The movie is very well played and being black and white makes it more believable. You might say it's quite static, so enjoy this movie if you are feeling calm and meditative.