djdelon Reviews

The Gates (2007)

Great doc on a great work of art.

[10/10 · 2 March 2008]

Such a great flick.

As a great documentary in and of itself, but also as a great new york city-movie, showcasing NYC's bureaucratic madness during the planning stage, but also its incredible diversity, and how it was the only real city where a project like this COULD happen and resonate quite like it does.

Its also a great 'artiste' movie, in both the role of the artist and the dogged determination required to fulfill your passions, as Christo and his wife Jean-Claude worked since 1979 on this, but also the role of art, at least on a grand scale, in todays world...maybe more than anything, The Gates really shows the irrationality of haters and naysayers in the face of art...some of the negative arguments and reactions to the project in hindsight appear moronic and embarrassing, and Mayor Bloomberg should be commended for finally giving the go-ahead and making this possible.

And visually, once the gates are up, with all the reactions of the people against that winter backdrop, the film truly becomes transcendent, and becomes a stunningly beautiful and touching work of art itself.

Multi-thumbs up.

Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997)

surreal, disturbing and darkly comic

[6/10 · 21 March 2004]

Just an odd, odd flick, a montage of images and sound bites from international hostage and terrorist attacks, mainly from the 60's through the early 80's...there's some point being made about the medias coverage of such acts of terror turning us all into apolitical carnage-seeking voyeurs...but it's all pretty scattershot as far as a coherent message, but it has a dark humor in it's presentation of these harrowing events, ending with a string of slo-mo footage of airliners crashing, all to the strains of that 70's disco anthem, The Hustle...after the end credits are done, the last shot says all there is to say about this film makers wicked (or, sick) sense of humor.

Cabin Fever (2002)

wow....all I can say, is wow...

[1/10 · 21 March 2004]

What a piece of crap...can't say I was disapointed, cuz I thought it'd be a piece of crap, with all the incessant buildup surrounding it...but by the time the credits start rolling, I literally had my mouth agape at just how hideous this film was.

Eli Roth must be the most delusional director to come by in a long time...for all the hype surrounding this movie that he gladly fed with his non-stop yapping in interviews and on the dvd, this movie is a disgrace. ..an absolutely nails-against-the-blackboard bore, with not one scary moment to be found...for all the hoohaw about the return to gore and sex, the gore is tame and it's impact is lost by the constant score-blasts and cut- scenes that are supposed to pass for scares. Awful performances, no suspense (at the 40 minute point, I'm STILL waiting for something, ANYthing scary to happen...), and a script that's bad beyond belief...there's a review I read that refers to the 'rifle joke' at the general store, and how the first part of the joke might have been funny, if not curious, on it's on...but to bring closure, and 'explain' the joke the way he does...and as THE LAST SCENE...?? It almost made me wish I had seen it in a theater, so I could have boo'd even louder then I had originally intended on booing it, BEFORE that final scene!!

Yeah, it's a first film, but it's pretty clear: Eli Roth is a hack. He may talk a good game in interviews and he's a protege to a genius, David Lynch, but he's a hack all the same. What's worse, is that with all the clamor to praise this piece of garbage, he seems to believe his own hype. Like that other horror-film hack WS Anderson, Roth is utterly clueless in how to establish and manipulate tone, let alone go back and forth between horror and dark comedy. For that, go back and watch Evil Dead or Dead-Alive...Cabin Fever is dismally boring, gutless, and most unforgiveable, excrutiatingly full of itself.