Change Your Image
pkwsbw-1
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
A Hidden Life (2019)
Potentially great film spoiled by poor direction.
Yes, this film tells a good story, has good acting, and is beautifully filmed, but it is overlong and becomes tedious. The story of a conscientious objector and outsider in greater Germany during World War II is very similar to 2013's "13 Minutes", which is told in a much tighter, traditional pace. I usually don't even know the director's name when I watch a film, but while watching this one, I couldn't help but notice similarities to the near-great but disappointing "The New World" from 2005. Lo and behold, both were directed by Malick, and both suffer from way too many long pauses in the dialogue. To pan around the countryside to show how idyllic a farm community is might work three or four times, but it happens maybe 25 times. Malick should have cut an hour and added connecting dialogue throughout.
Entebbe (2018)
Don't believe the 1, 2, and 3 reviews!
It seems that many people are reviewing this movie based on politics, not the film itself. There is no way this is a terrible movie - I rather liked it.
The story of the hostage taking in '76 is told mostly from the perspective of the hijackers. Their character development is good. They are nuanced people. I doubt very many people in history are all bad or all good. We are all measured in degrees. This film dips into why they might do such a thing. The original lead German terrorists begin to have doubts about killing their hostages as their authority is gradually eroded by their Middle Eastern comrades.
Much of the rest of the tale is told from the Israeli government side. They had to play politics with each other and the families of the hostages. They too are nuanced. The soldiers' story is told well, and there is adequate tension during the raid. It may not be as tense a job of storytelling as Zero Dark Thirty, but it's good enough.
Including the dance scene as a backdrop was an unusual choice, but it is a very good dance and song. One of the dancers is the girlfriend of one of the raiders. She too is nuanced, not all pro-war all the time.
Give this movie a chance. It's not at all bad as some people are saying. View it as film, not an endorsement of one side or the other.
Saul fia (2015)
Skip this, watch 2001's The Grey Zone instead.
Barely a plot, barely any dialogue, claustrophobia inducing hand held camera closeups through most of the film; clearly the director is doing this intentionally, but it just doesn't work. The moral plight of the Sonderkommandos (concentration camp inmates forced to do the Holocaust's dirtiest work) was covered much better in The Grey Zone. This film lacked for me the tension, and even the horror, by trying too hard to be intimate. I confess I didn't even make it to the end.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
I liked it in the theater nearly 40 years ago. Why?
Just watched a big chunk of this movie on cable. When I was young, I thought it was hip and cool, but it was very disappointing this time around. The main idea is interesting: advanced alien tries to earn a fortune selling technology in order to return home, but there is no cohesion or flow to the plot. The acting is subpar. The female lead is painful to watch. Why was she cast? David Bowie is flat throughout. The feel is that of a couple of college kids who got a camera and talked their friends into improvising a script. Even the lighting and photography are poor. Don't believe the people giving this movie a high score. They'll change their minds in 40 years as I did.
Noah (2014)
Quick review based on the movie, not side issues.
One of my favorite movies is Reds. If you scroll through the reviews, you see they are skewed by people enraged by the fact that the movie is a bit apologetic about communism. Similarly, reviews of Noah are greatly skewed by those complaining about the lack of Biblical accuracy. I feel that is irrelevant, especially since I've never read the actual story in the Bible. The fact is, this movie is poor all by itself. The action and dialog are plodding, the costumes look like they came from the gift store from some Vegas hotel, the color themes depressing, the special effects boring, and on and on. I would have given it less than 3 stars, but it was slightly fun to observe the all star cast. The whole feel of the movie is depressing from start to finish. Save your money and go see something else.