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Reviews
Z (1969)
Great movie
This is a great movie. I have watched this movie a few times and have enjoyed it on each viewing. it tells the story of the return of a progressive politician to a totalitarian state with a corrupt police force. His return is to deliver a speech in the lead up to general elections. The movie shows the steps which the government and the police will go to try and firstly stop him from delivering a speech and secondly from trying to silence him permanently.
The main reason I like this movie is because the characters are so well developed and original. There are no clichés in this movie when it comes to any of the characters. Even somewhat minor characters have strange little personality traits, which distinguish them from the run of the mill supporting cast. For example, the witness who decides to come forward to the police turns out to be quite a complex character when one discovers his motivations are coming forward.
The only person that seems a bit wasted in this movie is Irene Papas , who virtually says nothing through the whole movie. Indeed she does little more than make a succession of intense facial expressions throughout the movie.
Despite the heavy themes that this movie is seeking to explore, there is also quite a lot of humour. I particularly liked the scenes which showed the desperate attempts by a succession of police officers attempting to escape the media through a locked door.
eXistenZ (1999)
Over-hyped
I was attracted to this movie by the line "Makes the Matrix look like child's play" on the promotional flyer. What a misrepresentation. Matrix is a vastly superior movie to ExistenZ. In fact ExistenZ is simply a very ordinary movie, which looks like it was made on a shoestring budget.
I have really enjoyed a few Cronenberg movies such as Scanners and Videodrome, but this was not even close to being as good as those movies. In fact there was clearly a great deal of influence from another awful Cronenberg movie, The Naked Lunch, in this movie.
Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh are both excellent actors, but they seemed lost in this movie, wandering around trying to work out what to do next. There are other heavyweights such as Ian Holm and William Dafoe whose roles are must have been intended to be caricatures.
The scenes which depict the civil war are some of the least convincing and low budget efforts I have ever seen in a movie boasting such a good cast.
Watch this one with your expectations set very low and, who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised!
Popiól i diament (1958)
Disappointing
I watched the Wadja War Trilogy back to back, so you can imagine I was looking forward to the final instalment which is generally considered to be the best of the three. However, I was quite disappointed. The reason for my disappointment was because O felt the lead character was trying much too hard to be a Polish James Dean. The only difference being that the odd things James Dean used to do when he was acting, didn't seem weird out of place. Unfortunately, you don't get the same feel from the weird things that the lead in Ashes and Diamonds keeps doing throughout this movie. Even the final scene seems to me to be quite strange and almost comical.
Having said that, the plot is great and Wajda does a great job capturing the atmosphere of confusion which must have existed in Poland on the last day of the war. Nationalists and communists were no longer fighting a common foe in the Nazis - rather they were now fighting each other for the right to rule Poland.
Despite my reservations about the lead character, this is still worth watching. Given the other reviews I have read about this movie, I am clearly in a minority in my views about the lead character.
Kanal (1957)
Gripping
This is an excellent movie. It tells the story of the last stages of the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. A small unit of Polish Resistance fighters are ordered to fall back to a central position by going through the sewers.
Most of the actions happens in the eerie confines of the sewers, which creates a very gripping atmosphere. However, the most interesting aspect of the movie is the character development. All of the characters are so different and changeable. No stereotypical characters in this movie!
Andrzej Wajda is a truly great director. He is able to make unique movies based on the character development, rather than relying on gimmicks to gain the audience's attention. In this movie you never know what is ultimately going to happen to the resistance fighters until the final scenes.
Pokolenie (1955)
Excellent
I really enjoyed this movie. It tells the story of three young men who join the Polish Resistance to fight the Germans in the Second World War. The interesting aspect of the movie is the exploration of the motivations of each of the men in deciding to fight the Germans. These men do not appear to all be motivated by patriotism but rather a variety of different motivations. The main character seems to be motivated by his attraction to the female leader of the Communist resistance, while the character played by Roman Polanski seems to be involved because he is looking for excitement. Finally, the Jasio character does not seem to have any idea why he is involved at all.
This is a very gritty and realistic movie, which was apparently made to celebrate the anniversary of the Communist Party in Poland. It is interesting how the director, Andrzej Wajda, didn't quite make the movie which the Party had hoped he would make.
On the DVD edition I watched there was an extended interview with Andrzej Wajda which is also very worthwhile. He explains how he did not really know what he was doing when he made A Generation and that the final product was not really what he had been asked to make. After some delay the Party did agree to release the movie.
Chinjeolhan geumjassi (2005)
Entertaining but confusing
I am a great fan of Park's movies and I really enjoyed this movie. However, I must admit I found some of it hard to follow. While the ending was very well done and raised very interesting issues about justice and punishment, there were a few important scenes prior to the end which I did not quite follow. Park's movie making is genuinely creative without being gimmicky. He does think in a way which forces you to takenotice. I particularly liked the way he flashed back to the Lady Vengeance's prison life to explain how she had formed bonds with various former inmates who were now helping here with her plans for vengeance. I may need to watch it again to work out some of the finer points of the movie which I seemed to have missed.
Le chagrin et la pitié (1969)
Excellent
This is an excellent movie which documents the history of the French Government in the Second World War. I must admit I was quite unaware of this history which I suspect the French government and people would like to cover up. It is disgraceful history of collaboration with the Nazi's,which included persecution of the Jews, Frenchman being enlisted in the German army and huge amount of voluntary French labour being provided to the Nazi war machine.
The most disturbing and chilling aspect is the interview with the former Nazi officer who is entirely unrepentant for what Hitler did and continually claims that he did not know what was happening or that others were responsible (ie the Gestapo killed the Resistance fighters and rounded up the Jews). This person continued to wear his Nazi medals with pride twenty odd years after the war. When asked why he decided to keep wearing them, when many other German soldiers refused to wear their medals, he responded by saying that the others did not wear their medals because they had not earned them. In another scene, he starts to make some jokes in response to a question about the persecution of the Jews while a young man, who I assume is his son, smirks smugly.
One aspect of the history of France which I think the documentary glosses over were the extra-judicial killings of Nazi collaborators at the end of the war. I think that the documentary makers did not condemn these killings, but rather sought to justify them.
In conclusion, it was a great movie which will take a couple sittings to get through given that it is over four hours long.
Bastard Boys (2007)
Great TV Movie
This is a great TV movie. It explains the events of the Waterfront Dispute very accurately, particularly the legal issues which were not very straight-forward. There were a few inaccuracies - for example, the dramatic scenes in relation to the Australian Endeavour happened at Port Botany and not Webb Dock and the ACCC did not seek fines in its cases against the MUA. However, the most disappointing aspect of the production was the inaccurate claims that the MUA avoided engaging in violence on the docks. There was plenty of violence directed against the non-union laborers and anybody behind the picket lines. I didn't like all the focus on Josh Bornstein - it seemed quite unnecessary to me to focus so much of the movie on one of the legal advisers.
Manhunter (1986)
Groundbreaking movie
When I started watching this movie I was surprised at the reference to Hannibal Lecter. I initially thought that it may be a cheap imitation of Silence of the Lambs. However, rather than being a cheap imitation it actually predated Silence of the Lambs. I found the plot to be very interesting and involved. The acting is also excellent with a few fairly unfamiliar faces in lead roles. The person being manhunted is also one of the creepier characters I have seen in a movie for some time. The only thing to watch out for is that there is quite a lot of dialogue in places and you have to concentrate so you don't miss out on any of the clues. High recommended.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Definitely not one of the 1001 movies you must see before you die.
I watched this movie because it was listed in the publication "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". I think I could easily go to my grave having missed this effort from Russ Meyer.
I understand that this movie has quite a cult following and I can only assume it has that status because it is so awful. The plot is silly and the acting is terrible. The plot is quite inane and the characters are cardboard cutouts. I guess you are supposed to treat the whole thing as a bit of a laugh.
However, I did like a couple of things about it - namely the black and white photography is good and there was some interesting camera work.
Der Untergang (2004)
Not too sure about this one
While there is no doubt that this movie has been very well made, there are certain aspects of which left me feeling very uncomfortable.
The movie has been put together very well, the acting is quite excellent, and the storyline is engrossing. The portrayal of Hitler in his last days in the bunker in Berlin is quite gripping and gives some good insights into the way his mental health deteriorated during that period. In particular it shows the paranoia which overtook him as he began to doubt the loyalty of his various German military leaders in carrying out his orders.
It also shows that he was quite paranoid about his body being captured by the Soviets and displayed publicly. Accordingly he gave instructions to his staff to ensure that his body was incinerated so that the Soviets could not capture and display his body.
While this movie has a lot to recommend it, the thing which made me very uncomfortable was the way in which Hitler was portrayed. It appeared focus quite often during the movie on his humanity towards various people who were it with him in the bunker for example, his personal assistant. These scenes showed Hitler to be a quite caring and sensitive to the those around him, and very concerned about their personal safety. I must admit that this particular image of Hitler was contrary to what I understood about the man.
While I understand the movie is quite historical in the way it portrays those final days, I got the feeling that the directors may be a little bit sympathetic towards Hitler which caused me some concern.
The Aviator (2004)
Enthralling movie
This is a great movie. I think I probably enjoyed it more because I did not know two things - (1) I didn't know much about Howard Hughes and (2) I didn't know that Martin Scorsese directed the movie.
The acting by Leonardo diCaprio in the lead role is fantastic. He is a very good actor and totally dominates this movie. The only guy that comes close to him is Alec Baldwin as the boss of PanAm.
Scorsese very cleverly weaves in some hints about Howard Hughes' mental problems early on in the movie, including what appears to be obsessive compulsive disorder. It was quite remarkable that a person with such health problems was able to achieve so much.
There are some excellent scenes in the movie. The lunch scene with Katherine Hepburn and her family is very memorable as is the scene before the Congressional committee. There are also some humorous scenes such as his defence of Jane Russell's mammaries in the movie The Outlaw.
While the movie is quite long, I would have liked to see the movie continue to the end of his life. However, from what I understand of Howard Hughes' later years, it may have been quite difficult to film given how erratic his behaviour became.
Oldeuboi (2003)
Loved the movie but no idea what it was about
This is an excellent movie, which I really enjoyed. However, I must admit I did not really understand most of the movie. While it is a bit strange saying that I enjoyed a movie which is so hard to follow, there are a lot of reasons to like this movie.
First, it is not like any movie I had seen before. It is creative without being silly or indulgent. The director is continually having great ideas which on almost every occasion come off.
Second, the acting is quite excellent. The way the actors react to events is quite captivating. They do strange things, normal things and just everyday mundane things in a totally believable way.
Third, the movie has some fairly humorous parts, even though it is a very serious movie. Look out for a couple of scenes in particular, for example the octopus scene and the attempted seduction scene. Hysterical.
Finally, the use of colour in the movie is very effective. Most of the movie is characterised by loud, vibrant colours. However the director sometimes uses black and white and duller colours to excellent effect.
In short, this is the type of movie that you just can't turn away from. You will be continually asking yourself what could possibly happen next. I am sure that with each repeat viewing you will pick up many different things which you missed first or second or third time around.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Well made but ultimately unsatisfying
I had not read the book before watching the movie, so I did not know what to expect. I was immediately captivated by the movie - it is very well made, well acted and the lead characters are very engaging.
However, I was not too sure the director was very focused on what she wanted to achieve. It seemed to move back and forth between seriously dealing with the issue of youth suicide and making jokes about the topic.
I have seen in some other reviews which suggest that the pointlessness of the suicides in the movie is intended to emphasize how pointless suicide it. However, I think that mixes up cause and effect. While suicide is ultimately pointless, it usually occurs for a reason. Therefore, it is important to try to work out the causes of suicide if there is going to be any way of preventing it occurring. In this case, the causes of the suicides are not really explored.
Inconscientes (2004)
Pleasant surprise
This movie was a pleasant surprise. Spanish movies can often be of quite variable quality, however this movie was excellent in virtually every respect.
The movie is a comedy set amongst a range of characters who are all psychologists. Accordingly, most of the humor relates to psychological issues and characters. A fairly good knowledge of psychology will help in getting a number of the jokes. One of the funniest moments is when one of the characters tries to shoot Dr Freud and Dr Freud asks the would be assassin whether they are a follower of Jung.
I found the plot to be very good, with quite a lot of twists and turns, all the major characters were excellent and the production values were also very good.
Enjoyable fun.
Le déclin de l'empire américain (1986)
Not worth the effort
I really did not like this movie. It was pretentious and quite tedious. I don't think I liked one single character in the entire movie.
The story involves a bunch of academics who hand around a holiday house (the men) and gym (the women) talking about sex. The two groups end up coming together at the holiday house and talking more about sex. As you can imagine nobody has anything particularly uplifting to say about the topic of sex, focusing more on serial infidelity.
I guess one could argue that the whole point of the movie was to ridicule the main characters to demonstrate the decline of the American empire, but I don't think the director achieved that.
Also watching a movie like this with subtitles is hard work because the movie is very wordy. I found it hard to keep up with the constant rush of words at the bottom of the screen.
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Dumb and Dumber - in bad taste but very, very funny
I would have to agree with other reviewers which have Dumb and Dumber up there with one of the funniest movies of all time. This is a hysterical movie.
The best thing about this movie is that it starts funny and keeps the laughs coming for the duration of the movie. I often find that comedy movies will have a few funny bits (which usually feature in the promotional clip) and very little else.
While the humour in Dumb and Dumber is always in pretty bad taste, it is very hard not to laugh. The best parts of the movie for me were the restaurant scene which turns into a bloodthirsty kung fu fight and the scene where Harry and Mary are playing in the snow together and decide to make a snowman. There are plenty of other highlights - for example eating chilli dogs with the hit-man, the collection of outfits Lloyd and Harry wear, particularly to the fund raising event.
One interesting aspect of the movie is that it does not make any attempt to teach any sort of moral. Often humorous movies will try to teach a moral, maybe in some vain attempt by the director to justify having made the movie in the first place. However no such attempt is made in Dumb and Dumber - the two central characters start the movie as shallow, bitter weirdo's and that is exactly how they finish up.
D.O.A. (1949)
A forgotten classic?
I am not too sure if DOA should be classed as a forgotten classic. I am a bit of movie buff and I had never heard of it before.
I came across it on the Internet Archive and was quite surprised at how good the movie is. The story itself is quite remarkable. Frank Bigelow (played by Edmund O'Brien) plays a small time accountant / lawyer who travels to San Francisco for time away from his somewhat nagging girlfriend.
While Frank is in San Francisco his drink is spiked with a lethal poison by a mystery person. Frank does not know who the mystery person was, why his drink was spiked and why someone wants to kill him.
Frank does not do what probably most of us would do in a similar situation - sulk, cry, get drunk, etc. Rather he sets out to find out who did this to him and why.
Apart from a fantastic plot, the movie is very memorable for the collection of shady characters who Frank has to deal with in trying to find out who poisoned him, particularly the psychopathic Chester.
One thing to note is that the plot is quite complicated. I found myself having to go back and watch scenes a second time to work out what was going on. So make sure you concentrate when you watch this movie.
This is an excellent movie. Highly recommended.
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004)
Great content but annoying images
The Power of Nightmares is a fascinating look at the war on terror.
It's central thesis is that Western politicians have effectively manufactured the war on terror in order to make themselves needed and relevant to the general public. In support of this thesis, the film makers present a range of experts, including many former CIA operatives, who all confirm that: (1) the islamist terrorists were generally poorly organised and lacked an an overarching structure and (2) that Western leaders, particularly Bush and Blair, knew that the Islamic terrorists operated in an ad hoc and fairly chaotic manner but nonetheless have been trying to convince the public that there was a well-organised and centrally controlled global terrorist organisation
Some of the interviews with the neo-conservatives are very amusing, particularly Professor Pipes who headed up a committee during the Cold War to examine Soviet military capabilities. Accordingly, to Pipes the absence of evidence that the Soviet's had a particularly military capability, was proof that they did in fact have that capability.
The only criticism I have of this documentary is its use of images. There are fairly lengthy periods of the three hour plus film when all the filmmakers do is flash up a series of images which have a loose relationship to what the narrator was saying. I found this technique quite annoying after a while. I think it would have been more engaging if they had simply had an on-screen narrator rather than a voice-over narrator.
Overall this is a very fascinating and well put together documentary which is available for free download at the Internet Archive - http://www.archive.org/index.php.
Die Büchse der Pandora (1929)
Wow! Unexpected gem.
Pandora's box is a fabulous movie.
I tend to watch a fair few old silent movies and whilst the story lines are generally great and the camera work shows a lot of innovation, often the acting is pretty bad. The actors in many silent movies tend to overact and pull all manner of strange and grotesque faces.
Not so with Pandora's Box. The acting in Pandora's Box is tremendously good, with Louise Brooks obviously stealing the show. She tends to dominate every scene she is in.
The story starts off in quite a straight-forward manner. A wealthy respectable Dr Schon is having an affair with the vivacious and wild Lulu (Brooks). He tries to break off the relationship due to his pending wedding. Then much to my surprise, he breaks off his engagement and marries Lulu. The rest of the movie follows this trend - surprise after surprise.
The DVD I watched also had a fascinating documentary about Louise Brooks. I would also strongly recommend the documentary as well as the movie as it provides a good insight into the personality and career of Louise Brooks. She definitely a had a very tragic life - including being the victim a pedophile at age 9.
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
What and awful movie!
I really disliked this movie. I'll confess firstly to not being the biggest Woody Allen fan. However this movie was much worse than I expected.
Woody Allen plays Harry Block, a self-absorbed, over-sexed, alcoholic writer who has had a series of failed marriages and relationships. The story centers on the way in which Harry writes novels which are so loosely autobiographical that all his family and friends immediately know that they are the inspiration for the characters in his books. This leads to a constant stream of anger and name calling being directed at Harry for having revealed confidences to the world at large.
The most disturbing aspect of the movie is the bad language which is much worse than any other Woody Allen movie I can remember. For example, Judy Davis and Kirstie Alley both have extended scenes where they simply swear at Harry using every variation of the "f" word imaginable. Another distasteful scene is a conversation between Harry and his friend Larry (played by Billy Crystal) where they talk triumphantly about having sex with "disabled girls".
This is Woody Allen at his most pathetic.
Nattvardsgästerna (1963)
No laughs here!
This is a very well made and acted movie, which makes up for the fact that there isn't a whole lot of plot. The central character is a miserable minister who seems to spend most of his time unloading his troubles on his very troubled parishioners, rather than helping them with their spiritual problems.
The central issue which the Minister is dealing with is whether God exists. A particularly memorable part of the movie is the discussion in one of the last scenes between the Minister and his helper, about Jesus' suffering. The helper observes that Jesus' physical suffering was probably nowhere near as painful as his mental anguish at being abandoned by his apostles and his belief on the cross that he had been abandoned his father, God.
Well worth watching.
The Vikings (1958)
An absolute hoot
I have always loved The Vikings movie for its pure comic elements. Although the story is supposed to be serious, it is hard not to laugh through the movie at many of the scenes and costumes (look out particularly for Tony Curtis' short shorts).
The story centers around the disappearance of an illegitimate viking son who also has a claim the English throne. However the true highlights for me does not involve the plot but the scenes of Vikings partying hard, including the strangest fidelity test you will ever see and the incomparable evilness of Frank Thring as the English king. Other highlights include the final scene where protagonists have a sword fight on the top of a castle with the most amazing background scenery. Well worthwhile.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
A great movie - but not Kubricks greatest.
I did not really know what to expect from Barry Lyndon, but as I am a huge Stanley Kubrick fan I was quite excited about the prospect.
I found Barry Lyndon to be a great movie but a little hard to follow in its approach. The first half has Redmond Barry (as Barry Lyndon was then known) as an innocent and somewhat naive young man who is taken advantage of by various people. He seems to have remained an innocent even after he leaves the Prussian army where he is portrayed as having been exposed to all manner of deprivation.
However in the second half of the movie he suddenly becomes a downright evil character. I found the transformation somewhat unexpected and at odds with the way the plot had developed up until then.
Apart from that I really enjoyed the movie. The settings are fabulous with lots of color and big panoramic shots, and the acting is of a high standard despite most of the case being relatively unknown except for Ryan O'Neal. This music is also very memorable.
Excellent movie.