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Reviews
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Razzle Dazzle 'Em and They Won't Notice It's Awful
Hubby and I paid $4.99 to watch Mama Mia on Pay Per View last night and have decided we wasted $4. We're also grateful we didn't plunk down money on movie theatre tickets to see it. Thumbnail sketch of the film: A bunch of people with women's uncombed hair streaming and guys bare-chested (so's ya know they are 70's leftovers) run up and down the streets of a seaside village, singing. They are joined by happy peasants who also seem to know the song and the dance moves. The same bunch of people run up and down a pier singing a song that sounds like the first one, and end up in the water. The same bunch of people run around rocks and trees, singing a song that sounds like the first two. The same bunch of people run up and down the beach, singing a song that sounds like the first three. The same bunch of people run through a labyrinth of halls and rooms in some sort of seaside inn, singing a songyou get the idea by now. Three men visiting the seaside inn for a wedding run around the deck of a boat, singing for the bride-to-be, whom one of them has fathered years ago but not raised. The bride (omigosh!) ends up in the water. Who knew? The same bunch of people sit transfixed on the ground as three of them, ostensibly a female trio reunited for the wedding of one of their daughters, sing the songs that made them (in)famous.
ABBA's songs are round-pegged into the square holes of the screenplay, with laughably awkward song cues that smack of a Broadway stage setting. I guess it might have worked on Broadway. As for the volume competition between the accompanying background music and the singers, final score is Instruments 10, Singers 0. Given the vapid nature of the lyrics, this is not necessarily a bad decision on the part of the film-makers. All the manic music in the film sounds alike--well, shoot it's ABBA for heavens sake--except for a nice ballad sung by Streep and the bride, her daughter. One of ABBA's best tunes, "Fernando," was missing from the film. He probably died from a heart attack brought about by all that manic running, or maybe drowned off the boat or pier.
The actress playing the daughter has expressions that run the gamut from upset to VERY upset. The most active parts of her anatomy were her frowning forehead and wild eyes. Pierce Brosnan delivers a miscast performance that makes you wonder if he's contemplating strangling his agent, or throwing him off a pier or a boat.
I know that some commentators on IMDb thought the film was wonderful. "Chacun son gout." On the + side, Meryl Streep proves once again that she is a Protean actor who can really sing. Is there NO role this woman cannot play?
The Wedding Date (2005)
Dermot
A totally romantic getaway flick. Four REASONS why many IMDb males don't seem to like it are: 1) Both Debra Messing and the actress portraying her sister are flat-chested. 2) None of the IMDb male reviewers look like Dermot--omigod, that scene where he pushes her back against the car and whispers reassurances to her cheek and neck without kissing her--whew!! My plasma screen was smoking at the edges. Take some lessons, guys, and watch this flick--his facial expressions, his wardrobe, his muscles, his eye movements, how he interacts with other males...try it, it works.... #3) If they've gotten to England, they haven't ventured beyond London. #4) They prefer "My Big Fat Redneck Wedding" on TV to this gem. #5) Guys who dislike this flick probably prefer to see sheriffs and cops getting humiliated, cars getting blown up, brainless broads with great bodies, brainy guys looking stupid, beer drinkers throwing up, and other adolescent-male preferences which dominate our local multiplex.
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Whazzat yuh say?
Apologies if someone else has commented on this aspect of the film, but I don't feel like parsing through 42 pages of commentary. Two things come to mind. First, I had always naively thought that the purpose of dialogue in a film, with the exception of Robert Altman's work, was to keep the viewer abreast of what has happened, what is happening and what might happen. Not in TGS. OK, I can deal with the garbled dialogue of Wilson's son and his lover--it's a spy tape. But the film is maddening in that 60% of the CRITICAL dialogue is whispered through clenched teeth, and the other 40% occurs while Whiffenpoofs are singing or a band is playing--you get the idea. I've sat through this film twice now, once on rented DVD, once broadcast by a movie channel, and thus could kick up the volume in a desperate attempt to figure out what's being said, not being a lipreader myself. But DeNiro's incessant use of background noise only makes the raised volume more of a problem. Yes, yes, I know that in real life, humans talk over all kinds of noise, but LIVE DISCUSSION IS NOT A SOUND TRACK. A sound track is there to further plot or character development. Secondly, if you doubt that privileged Ivy League fellows really don't cavort in mud while being peed on, or dress up like women, or presume to know how to run the country better than the rest of us peons, I got a bridge I wanna sell you.
Brassed Off (1996)
You'll Never Forget It
Having rented a piece of c--p titled "Little Miss Sunshine" last week,I have given up on paying for what Hollywood deems quality filming. So I was surfing the movie channels, came across "Brassed Off," and what hooked this former USA marching band member was the gloriously rich music that accompanied the film's action. Everything politically important has been said on the previous 12 pages of this IMDb commentary, particularly about Thatcher, Reagan (and now Bush) and that ilk, who put profit above all and people last. This film, yes, does belong in the "full monty" category, but even more, it falls into the "Drum Line" category as well--the power that music has to lift people above their ordinary lives and to help them realize the depth of their humanity. This film, like "Drum Line," is an education in itself about musical traditions that millions are ignorant of. I was stunned at the richness of sound produced by a colliery band--no woodwinds to thin out the total effect.
The film also has echoes of "How Green Was My Valley," a film made in the 40's and set in Welsh coal-mining country, where male choral groups meet weekly and also compete in an annual national contest.
In addition, as an American tourist in Yorkshire, I loved the literary aspect of that area--Bronte country, if you will--being an English teacher, but this film was a cold slap in the face concerning the reality of the fate of men and women upon whose backs and blood the nation was enriched, and who are discarded, like rusty tools, when "conservative" economics trumpet the importance of "investors" over the fate of the workers in the industry. Yes, as one commentator pointed out, coal has no future in the 21st century, but short-sightedness and greed have ignored the need for other energy solutions that could have saved those Yorkshire communities and families, and which just might make the planet inhabitable for our grandchildren--if we don't continue to be stupid.
Watership Down (1978)
Loyalty, courage, leadership--this film has it all.
Probably few are going to toggle all the way down to page 11 to read this, but having viewed this film yesterday, having last watched it 20 years ago when I viewed it with my pre-teen son, I am moved to comment. After becoming familiar with the Disney pap that passes for animation--nothing ever matched Bambi or Fantasia--it is a joy to watch this film for the beauty and the accuracy of the drawings. The foreground is typically used to introduce new scenes, and the botanical faithfulness with which the plants are rendered is still amazing to me. Flowers, shrubs, even weeds, have been carefully rendered from real life and are nearly photographic in detail, unlike the amorphous blobs depicting nature that Disney animators now produce.
One commentator revealed that s/he cried again, as an adult, watching this film. So did I yesterday, at the scene where Hazel-ra dies. Somebody watching me would have guessed that I had gone tharn. Probably.
The film has given my family a number of quotes that are part of our existence now. "Let's head out to the hru-du-du." "Helflay is for Owsla." "Violet's dead (when we see any creature killed on the road). "But first they must catch us."
This film touches the receptive heart.
Munich (2005)
An Apolitical Comment
Update on the below: Can no one comment on my query about this weird, baffling indoor mist or fog that appears in nearly all of Spielberg's films????
The merits and weaknesses, as well as the political complexities of this film, have been chewed over and plowed up for 71 pages of IMDb, and I do not have the time to read any more of them. Since this film is now being aired on HBO hereabouts, I'm presuming there will be 2007 comments now made. This is one of them, but I'm focusing only on one personal objection to nearly every one of Spielberg's films. Perhaps somewhere in the above 71 pages, this objection has also been raised; my apologies if so.
What I'm commenting on is the fact that in so many INTERIOR scenes of his films, including MUNICH, there is this foglike miasma drifting past the people and the furniture. Nobody ever comments on this fog. Nobody seems to notice it. There is always some source of light illuminating this interior fog, usually the sun slanting through the windows. It's present in ET, AI, COLOR PURPLE, SCHINDLER'S LIST, on and on ad nauseum, and now in MUNICH. It occurs in three interior settings of Munich. I am baffled as to what Spielberg is trying to convey with this annoying technique. Every time I witness it, regardless of the nature of his film, I am distracted from the rest of the scene. This cannot be the singular decision of Spielberg's cinematographer; it has to be at the director's order. Why? Were this dusty mist occurring in just his sci fi films, well OK. But it isn't.
Paris Trout (1991)
Read the book
This is what films are supposed to be about. Not dripping with profanity, computerized special effects, sped-up chase scenes. It is one of the most faithful book-to-screen renditions in existence although naturally some of the scenes from the book had to be trimmed in order to make the film conform to typical length. But no problem--the skill of the actors and director create the essential thrust of the film. This book concerns true events that happened not far from where I live, and people hereabouts still speak of those events. As for the comment that the fox/rabies/little girl portion of the plot seems disconnected, not true. The fox, the manner in which the kind townspeople respond to her being bitten, the diametrically-opposed behavior of Trout toward the same little girl, and the manner in which the lives of all humans in small towns are interwoven, make for superb writing and film-making. You will never forget either film nor book. Scenes from both will always crop up, especially the bottles--the scene with Hershey and later the contents of the safes.
Drumline (2002)
The "Dirty Dancing" of College Movies
The best way to watch this film, particularly if you are an alumnus/na of a marching band, is to put the video on "mute" anytime you don't see people marching or dancing. Yes, like "Dirty Dancing," the plot is a tired cliché, the dialogue pathetic, the directing embarrassing, the scene development/cuts jarring. But the moves, the moves. Omigod, when the bands take the field, it's gripping. As for those gorgeous girls and their gyrations, it's enough to send me to my chiropractor! I was half hoping that there was a real competition like the "Southern Classic," living as I do just two hours from Atlanta, but alas, no such thing. As for watching drum and bugle corps in order to see "real drumlines," sorry. They are military, wooden, and you'll forgive me, very whitebread--like this lady. Yes, DCI bands do more intricate footwork but those marimbas or glockenspiels whatever they are--icky plinkaplink. I'll buy this film, just like "Dirty Dancing," but only for the music/moves sections.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Darkness of the Heart
There are about 10 films ever made that leave indelible images branded into your brain, and this is one of them. Those who comment that the film ranges beyond war into the nature of human beings are on target. The film, like the book, spirals farther and deeper, down into the hot center of the degenerate human heart. Yes, it's a slow, crawling sensation, and like many artists before them, Conrad and Coppola use a river as the symbol of the life's journey we are all floating on, like it or not, as the riverbanks gliding by present ever-changing conflicts. The mad young surfer--the only survivor besides Willard--is yet another version of all the demented or alienated characters in literature who see the truth realized--the Seer in Greek tragedies, the cabin boy in Moby Dick, Jim in Huck Finn, the Pilot's Boy in Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the jesters in Shakespeare's dramas. In never-ending cycles of trauma and peace, both individuals and nations are repeatedly mired in moral dilemmas that create suffering and horror, and reveal the perversity of the human heart. But the soul is never extinguished.