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jmorgan8
Reviews
The Village (2004)
Enjoyable Popcorn Pulp...
After being horribly bored watching Signs I really had no expectations regarding M.Knight's latest project, The Village. I attended with my 13 yr old cousin who is over 20 years younger than me. We go to all the pg-13 & under fright flicks that we can as my wife and toddler daughter aren't big fans of horror/supernatural films. When I saw the advance press for The Village I knew I'd soon be a part of it's audience once it hit town. After watching the film yesterday, I felt pretty satisfied that Signs wasn't the best example to judge MK's creative potential by.... a sophomoric slump of sorts perhaps, but probably nothing more.
The Village was a throwback to the creature-feature matinees I used to enjoy as a kid on Saturday afternoons once the cartoons had stopped running for the day. I suppose if I had gone into the movie trying to guess ahead of time what the 'twist' was going to be that I could have figured it out ahead of time but why try and ruin the whole experience for myself? That just sounds plain dumb.
MK is no Stanley Kubrick but I don't think that bothers Shyamalan much anyway. He is a modern master of sustaining suspense without resorting to exploitative gore or obscenity just because it's titillating. If I had anything to suggest about his next movie it would be to drop the 'twist' gig if for any reason just to mock the folks that spend their hard-earned money to tear apart every film's plot as some sort of pseudo-intellectual hobby.
Aside from the haters, anybody who appreciates character studies and high-quality acting will enjoy The Village for a multitude of reasons. Hurt, Brody, Phoenix, and Howard are brilliant. No goofy cameos or anything, just solid performances from a variety of academy award caliber actors. The dialogue and sets were flawless and engaging and ultimately, a lot of fun. A great film for a rainy Sunday, a large tub of popcorn and a few hours of scary fun.
Virgil Bliss (2001)
flawless character definition
As a fan of gritty, street-life character studies I looked forward to watching this film for quite a while before it hit the Sundance Channel. As I watched the story unfold it became harder and harder to distinguish between the actors and the roles they were portraying. It's obvious that bad things are going to happen but nothing prepared me for what eventually happened in the end. I was left wondering for days afterwards what happened to these people after the cameras stopped rolling. That doesn't happen often in films for me these days.
While it's sad to say that some people can never change it's also obvious after watching Virgil try to change his life for the better that some people have just not got a chance in this world. Sometimes wanting to be good is not always enough.
Throw in an alcoholic, dimebag hooker as a love interest along with other destitute sociopaths such as pimps, goombahs, ex-cons and the like and it's just sometimes too much to bear. Watching Virgil try to heal Ruby's addictive personality with his unconditional love and affection is just downright painful stuff. The only time he can break down her defenses is when she's so wasted that she's an imminent threat to Virgil's new-gained freedom and sobriety. It explained a lot for me why people in bad situations make things worse with drug and alcohol abuse. Sometimes it's the only way to feel human again.
Anyway, there's a lot going on in this film besides Virgil's love interests. A lot of forces are gnawing at him every day, coaxing him to fail. it's really impossible to guess what which one will do him in. Everyone in this film deserves fame and respect for their treatment of their character roles. Great stuff, just make sure you're not feeling lonely before you watch this movies as it's probably going to make you feel a lot worse.
Taxi Driver (1976)
*spoiler* what really happened in the end
*spoiler*
Bickle died from his injuries before leaving the scene...all the stuff about him being a hero was a look into the final minutes of a demented mind.
With his will to power exhausting itself, Travis lay dying from his injuries while fantasizing about being thought of as a modern hero by the news media and Jodie Foster's parents.
Scorsese chose to take the concept of a lonely man descending into madness one step farther by actually taking the audience inside the delusions of grandeur of a dying psychopath.
He could not bear to die thinking he was alone and a failure.