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Reviews
Taegukgi hwinallimyeo (2004)
Mediocre
I ran away after a half of an hour of that flatulent nonsense. Well, the battle scenes are filmed rather well and technologically advanced, blood is red, brains are soft and pink and guts wriggle. Very nice, indeed.
But what about a plot which consists of clichés worn out to rags (is it a postmodern joke - to fill the film with nothing but implicit quotes from mediocre blockbusters? I doubt), a work - lack of it - of a stylist (glossy soldiers with cute haircut after a week of hunger and battle) and especially acting? The characters are soulless puppets, no, I'm wrong, they are dumb flat sketches, invented by a mass culture bungler, a sneer on a human being played by the actors who might think that an amount of grimaces shows inner feeling of a person. I just could not bear this any longer.
I have to admit that I have seen some of Hollywood flickers this year. And none of them was such a scrap!
Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka (2003)
bad film... just bad
I left this movie in the middle - and I am a very patient spectator. I don't give a damn how it ended or who of the characters survived - everybody of the crew deserves capital punishment or something like that.
For some reason the Japanese films that I saw were either near to perfect, or complete nonsense. This film is nonsense at its best. The plot is bad - even comics' charactors are better motivated, and as a example of a proper life is given - sweet lord! - the modern Afghanistan, the acting is very bad and the dialogs grant the movie the place in Hot Trash Fifty. Only the work of the operator is worthy, but he is still worthy of decapitation - without him the film would be a complete failure and much less people had wasted their time.
Or maybe the film is a sarcastic picture of a radical movement? Well, then they got it - I can't remember when or where rebels looked such idiots. Then, shoot a couple of similar films and translate them through all possible means and Japan youth (maybe) will do nothing but make a career - but where would this lead them?
Härtetest (1998)
some moments can't save the film
This is one of the movies which are bad but still have some sparkles.
I guess the authors had a gag (spoiler) - a company hides to make a surprise at a girl's birthday and sees this girl f***ed by a stranger. Then her boyfriend who saw the scene with his own eyes forgives her at once. (end of spoiler). What kind of a man is he after this? The answer is clear but the authors still have an hour and they have to fill it with something.
Then, no matter what they tried, they could not but use a cliche. Dumb football fans, overcaring mother - the only reason for her son failures, mutual attraction of poor and rich and many others and the pearl - young radical-feminist-green-communist who's intimate thought is to become a loving wife of a clerk. If the movie had lasted for a quarter of an hour more, she would remember the principles of three K, I guess.
Well, the sparkles are: the above-mentioned gag, Rudi Voller as an angel and marvellous smile of Lisa Martinek.
The acting is rather good and fits comedy well, but the plot spoils most of the crew's efforts.
La primera carga al machete (1969)
Socialistic film with Cuban flavour
I haven't seen any other M.O. Gomez's movies, but I have seen a lot of films similar to "La primera carga el machete" - Soviet official cinema. I can't say that all of such films are bad or boring, but maybe they were all made by one author?
Here is the story of one of the Cuban rebellions in 19th century against Spain (I guess it is 1868 but I can make a mistake). The Cuban people in a sole impulse struggle against foreign oppressors: workers on plantations cease to cut sugar-cane and turn their machetes against the authorities; patriotic men and women in white collars and evening dresses talk about democratia, libertad, independencia.
I estimate the budget of the film approximately 3 kopecks, but sometimes they managed to shot even crowd scenes! From the other hand, the director makes characters to talk about the events crucial to the plot instead of showing the appropriate scenes.
I cannot advise you to rush and book the tickets on the film, but if you feel interest for revolutionary theme and/or Cuban history - you may go.