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Reviews
The Rum Diary (2011)
Very Underrated Movie.....Give it a Try !
After all the bad reviews, I thought long and hard about watching this, but then respect for Bruce Robinson, and Johhny Depp took over, and I had to watch it. The movie turned out to be really great, the acting was very good, from everybody, the less colorful actor in this was probably Depp, but in relative terms of course, its just, he didn't bring anything new to the table, but all the other actors were a blast, Michael Rispoli was awesome, a great friend in the movie, just one of these roles that you watch it and want to go chill and drink few rums with him. Giovanni Ribisi is just great as a drunk journalist, lately, every role with him I saw, its just pure magic. His role is a bit controversial, or at least as Johhny said in one of his European interviews defending this film, few aspects of the film are not made for the American audience, I guess you have to watch the film and judge for yourself on this one. What else can I say, I was surprised, very underrated movie, don't go in expecting Withnail & I or Fear and Loathing because those movies are masterpieces in their own right, and its very hard to make something similar to them (especially Fear and Loathing) but this film definitely comes close in its atmosphere, pacing, and friendly feeling to Withnail & I, so don't go in expecting it to be Fear or Withnail, but keep in mind the charm is there. Give it a try and you will not regret it. "_"
Sucker Punch (2011)
Maybe Works for 13-18 Year Olds under influence of.....
The first 5 minutes of the film, is maybe the film itself, and maybe the reason to pay the money and go see this movie....maybe not.
This film has no artistic value as compared to '300', so fans of Snyder going to see this because of '300' masterpiece. don't go, it is not.
The film probably can be appreciated by teenagers under the influences of various substances, because that is probably the only way, the only correct way to appreciate this film to some degree. Probably comparison to movie 'speed racer' can or should be made.
Acting does not exist in this film, special effects are poorly done as well as the soundtrack to them, and in general almost all of the scenes are absolutely pointless and tedious. Again for teenagers maybe they are less tedious, hard to tell.
The core of the film is the message that Snyder tries to express. This message is obvious and understandable if you looking at this movie from the right perspective. The problem is that I don't know if the kids will understand this message or if this message was openly conveyed to them.
The 'grandiose' "plot within a plot" is that he describes a Strip Club and the inner workings of it, the psychology and the circumstances of the girls who are trapped in this lifestyle. He describes girls, who had bad parents or were abused and ran away from home, and the only way to support themselves became a money making machine of Strip Clubs, then he describes all the internal struggles and hell that many girls are internally dealing with while pursuing this profession. Then, he describes the coping mechanisms to this torture, as for girls to resort to various substance helpers for them to escape their reality or to distort it, and finally the ultimate coping mechanism is to totally stop caring, detach yourself from the horrible reality, and to become a so to speak "living zombie", a living dead, a mental suicide of sorts,"self-lobotomy", the body is alive but the "soul" is dead.
Snyder's point at the end is that this is not the way to go, there are other ways to deal with harsh life realities, find a map(goal in life), find a key(a way to attain it), a lighter(a spark within yourself to do it), a knife(fight for your goal) and finally "the missing element"(yourself). If you will be able to find these, it will set you free, you will attain financial and emotional freedom.
So if the teenagers who will go to watch this movie will grasp the messages that Snyder is trying to convey, then this movie has some value, if they will just go under influence and watch it like a very long, not that interesting video game, then it's just another pebble in the graveyard...
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Unfortunately...war, corruption, and politics win again.
Forget this movie, its not even worth reviewing. Its very sad that people have to do a campaign to push their movie in the Oscars. Is it the country of freedom? or the country of marketing? Yey,,,,who has the best salespeople wins. Can you get more ridiculous? Is the Oscars suppose to be the vote of the people? Hello... 2.6 billion dollar movie vs 21 million dollar movie. Clearly, the vote of the people was made,,,clearly the Oscars of today is no more than a corrupt narrow minded "politically correct" addicted crowd of pseudo-critic marketers. Yee..lets bring in op rah,,,,we have a big politically correct party....yee...we make these...and these people happy....ART...hmm...WHAT ART? AVA..WHO....DID YOU SAY AVA...TUH...AVATAR....ups sorry we didn't heard of it before...we are too busy self-medicating on our politically correct pills.... Oscar committee,,, please remind people why one of the 4 producers of The Hurt Locker wasn't allowed on the red carpet...ye...you remembered it...oh...nice...so stop making fools out of people and return the Oscar to whom it really belongs.
Shutter Island (2010)
Fear and Loathing on Shutter Island
As with many other Scorsese films, you must watch this film accurately and actively from the beginning to the end, preferably in the movie theater, by yourself, alone. Then, you will start to feel the intended magic of this film. I can sit here and talk about great acting in the movie, great cinematography, great direction, but I will leave it to other reviewers. The greatest part of the film is that each piece of the movie is constructed in a way to bend and manipulate your mind, and at the end, after all twists and turns, your mind is completely confused, unwilling to interpret further, and its only objective becomes to question the sanity of its beholder. When you drive home, and you feel that you just got released from the asylum and you actively questioning your state of mental health while observing fellow car drivers for the signs of deception, lunacy, and yet again deception, you kind of know that the movie succeeded and provided a great cinematic experience. As for other reviewers, who question the stability of this movie by asking why, if being this good, it wasn't released in December for 2009 Oscars, I have a simple explanation, why release it in December and be nominated and go home empty handed, after the magician Mr. Cameron rightly takes all the awards, if you can release the film in February, go for 2010 Oscars, and have a greater probability at winning a few awards. As always, very clever move from Mr. Scorsese. Don't miss this one, it Will make you "insane" for at least 2 1/2 hours....guaranteed.
Fighting (2009)
Realistic and Refreshing
Very well-done and realistic movie about New York City. The intricate atmosphere and interrelations between people are well captured in this film by a "relatively unknown" future star director that is a native of NYC and knows the city inside out and can recreate the real emotion and feel of this weird place that requires you to be engaged in "fighting" every day of your life, just to survive in this city. Hustler mentality of everyday citizen of NYC is a direct metaphor with the movie title and the way how the main character was fighting his was up from the fresh New York "immigrant" to a more desirable economic and social status. But back to the movie, the soundtrack was really great, especially to create atmosphere for the fighting scenes which were very well done and made to be very realistic. There is a lot of comic relief in the movie, which is needed to unfog the shady atmosphere of the gloomy city. Acting is the element which is probably the strongest in the movie. (and i am not saying that because I had a 3 second scene in it)) Channing Tatum is realistic and enjoyable to watch and he is on his way to becoming a great mainstream actor, the old grandma was a scene stealer, but a the real gem was the performance of Terrence Howard. This role will probably get Mr. Howard a lot of festival nominations including the well deserved Globes and The Oscars. Great character charisma and incredible unique mellow voice gets the job done again. I think it definitely worth watching this movie in the theater because of the great fighting scenes that feel THAT more real when you are in front of the big screen and DTS surround than when you are watching that kind of a movie at home. If you are not from NYC and want to feel the atmosphere of the city, to feel like you been there-done that, I encourage you to give that dark Gothic melting pot a try. If you are a New Yorker and just want to reconfirm the "tough guy/tough place" status you are also more than welcome to get the shot of homemade adrenalin through the incredible vision of Dito Montiel. Great movie, solid acting, strong refreshing direction, realistic Fighting.
Watchmen (2009)
Being Long Is The Least Of Its Problems....
Zack Snyder did nothing wrong in this one. Great visionary direction again. In anything other than directing and/or special effects the movie fails on every level. The worst of it is the writing and the job that screenwriters did or maybe is not totally their fault because they tried to stay true to the graphic novel, and maybe It was not written on a very sophisticated or cohesive level in the first place. Dialogues are unwitty but they pretend to be saying something philosophical about human nature or current situation in the States; if you want current situation in the states watch V for Vendetta which cannot be even compared with this Watchmen nonsense. Acting was also not sharp, "The Comedian" was the only one who was actually acting and had a charm to his character, but other people were probably too lazy to act since they were often hidden by superhero costumes or maybe they were just not into that movie as most rational people would be. The girl was really bad, how and who cast her, i have no idea. I went to see this movie after being totally amused by the art and breakthrough in cinematography that "300" was able to accomplish in big part of Snyder's direction. Here he tries, but he cannot save this 3 hour torture flick (3 hours in a packed theatre with limited access to the bathroom) and the most interesting part is that the music director who provided such incredible music for "300" was probably too depressed or not into it that he chose the most boring soundtrack you could imagine. The fight sequences are good, maybe a bit too brutal, but entertaining enough to say that they were not bad. ( Be prepared for a 4 hour unrated DVD version with all even-more-brutal fight scenes footage) The length of the film is ridiculous, but as i said it was the least of its problems, if the movie was 90 minutes long, maybe it would play out better. In conclusion, if you are "watchmen" graphic novel fanatic or "star wars" junkie its your kind of material, if you neither, went in to see Znyder's continuation of "300" visionary art, educated, have knowledge of movie industry and simply wanted to see an intelligent work of visionary movie making, no such luck here, please come again. :)
In Bruges (2008)
Good Drama,,,But NOT a Comedy
A good drama about the human relationships dealing with love, death, and the purpose of life. The ideas are taken from Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Great scenery throughout the movie. This movie is not, though, a comedy. It is treated as a comedy and was even nominated as a comedy, but its not a comedy or a dark comedy. Not through the wording nor through the actions. The acting is good, Colin Farrell's performance is good, but having few facial expressions mimicking Johhny Depp or Heath Ledger are not enough to grant a Golden Globe, so the acting is overrated also. In overall, an overrated film on all aspects, i have no clue why it is 8.1, but it is a good flick that you can enjoy if you know what you are going into. It is not a dark comedy, it is a pure drama, with slight dark humor relief undertones, the word comedy was probably entered for marketing campaign. If you want good drama, go for it, a light comedy (or any comedy) skip this one, because it is not.