fresh_ Reviews

Harvey (1950)

Absolutely amazing

[10/10 · 26 December 2005]

I have never seen a more funny, touching, lovely and heartwarming film in my life. Harvey is absolutely brilliant, a lovely storyline with a few touching twists, great acting, and just a brilliant atmosphere all around. The one thing that I've always been most afraid of is losing my mind, but by the time I'd seen the first hour of Harvey it completely changed the way I thought about it, and I started considering the possibilities of actually freeing my mind (I'd just watched a documentary on the Fox Network before hand which really made me want to free my mind from the horrible, horrible world we live in!). It made me realise why I look forward to going to sleep and dreaming, and why I dabble in hallucinogenics. Because if you have a brilliant experience that makes you happy, whether its real or not, it's an experience worth having that can be really hugely positive! That aside, I just can't really sum up how... just how nice Harvey is. Elroy, the main character, is the most likable character I've ever seen, and all the tossers and horrible blokes he meets along his way are converted into good blokes just by the pure personality, likability, good spirit and faith in everything that this man presents. Truly brilliant.

Die Hard (1988)

Wicked

[9/10 · 26 December 2005]

Die Hard is about as perfect as a straightforward action film can get. By straightforward i mean with the guns, explosions, thieves and terrorists kind of formula, rather than films like star wars and predator which are in a whole different league! The character of John Mclain is great, an all American cowboy who is having a really bad day, the cast is good (with Allen Rickman as the main bad guy), it's got the Christmas theme gwanin, the storyline unfolds nicely, and it's the kind of film u can watch again and again and know it's gonna cheer you up. Until recently i'd only seen it when I was a kid, whereas I'd seen Die Hard 2 and Die Hard With A Vengeance numerous times, but trust this is far superior to the sequels. I'm not the kind of guy that's generally into action films, but Die Hard really is brilliant, just absolute perfection within the genre.

Kissing a Fool (1998)

Not bad for a crappy romantic comedy starring David Schwimmer

[6/10 · 10 December 2005]

I quite enjoyed it, but admittedly I saw it at midday, when already p*ssed up and feeling like crap... was quite relevant to my situation... still as far as crappy romantic comedy's go its a pretty good one. And David Schwimmer was tolerable (i have previously been of the opinion that he is THE most annoying man in existence). I wouldn't recommend anyone going out and watching it, but if your drowning your sorrows and its on TV, you might as well put it on. Apparently my comment isn't long enough, so I will add that Jason Lee is great, I've only really seen him in Kevin Smith films before, which have fantastic scripts, but it make me respect him more knowing that he can do so well in more conventional and (to be honest) less funny films.

Casino (1995)

Entertaining, but not deserving of the score.

[6/10 · 22 October 2005]

I was really disappointed by this film. I mean don't get me wrong it's not really bad, but it's really just goodfella's in a different setting init, right from Joe Pesci's psychotic brutally violent character, to a series of executions and hits when things start to go wrong, and the court scenes at the end.... lots of it doesn't make any sense, it's 3 hours long, and ultimately, I just thought it was fairly pointless. It was stylish, and quite entertaining, but if you want to see a Martin Scorsese gangster flick starring Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, this isn't the right one to choose.... if you get my point... by the way look away at the bit with the vice... ouch

The Tesseract (2003)

Crap!

[5 October 2005]

The book, The Tesseract, is written by Alex Garden (who wrote the incredibly book The Beach, and the screenplay to 28 days later). Although the novel was no where near the level of The Beach, it was still an interesting and gripping book. This film, on the other hand, is w*nk. It cuts out half of the story line, has horrible shots, transitions and effects throughout the whole thing, makes no sense, is extremely disjointed, and has the most wooden acting I've seen since... well probably ever. I am annoyed that I spent good money renting this out, that could've been spent on more beer. If you are tempted to watch this, think twice, put your blockbuster card down, pick your library card up. Trust.

PS. By the way for all the people that say my review wasn't helpful, grow up and learn to read

Tape (2001)

Well well well....

[8/10 · 21 September 2005]

First of all, I missed the first 20 minutes of this film so to be honest I could of missed a lot. What I saw was brilliant. The way it is shot is like a documentary, very basic close up shots on whoever is talking, rather than any O.S.S or establishing shots or anything. This kept the film very personal, as it didn't really bother f**cking about with making it look glossy, or even particularly with taking in the background (which i suppose could be less important when the whole film is set in one room and is entirely character based). I thought the film was really funny at times, while also being very claustrophobic and unpleasant. I wasn't really sure if I liked any of the characters, and by the end of it I wasn't really sure if any of them were making any sense... they're a confused bunch. Andy-film critic said in his review (the really, really, really long review) that we got no depth on Ethan Hawks character, and that he wasn't sure whether he was out to help his friend with his conscience or that he was Uma Thermans characters side or bladebla... I think at the end of the day, her comment amount him being confused and not knowing what he wants summed it up... anyways, starting to wander now and forget what i was talking about, but yeah... I thought this was an excellent film.. in a strange kind of way.....

Bulletproof (1996)

Dumb but funny

[7/10 · 6 July 2005]

I think Adam Sandler and his films are really underrated... They're not supposed to be masterpieces or films of an intellectual nature, they're just dumb comedies, but they still make me p*ss myself laughing every time I watch them. Sandler is great in my eyes, no matter how much he gets slated. I thought the acting in this film was fairly good, as were the action sequences. I mean if your looking for something deep, meaningful, or intelligent, avoid all Sander films, but if your just looking for a cheap laugh then Bulletproof does the job (as do Waterboy, Happy Gilmore, Airheads and Little Nicky). Speaking of Little Nicky I was surprised to see it got nominated for worst actor, worst screenplay, worst director, worst film etc. etc. I think that's a tad harsh. Anyway give the man a break, he's a really under rated comic.

Equilibrium (2002)

Very entertaining, if a bit over the top

[8/10 · 10 June 2005]

I really enjoyed this film a lot. I thought the bleak future portrayed in the film was an interesting one, and although it lacked credibility, it was an interesting point - they banned people from having emotions so that they could keep the human race from destroying itself, but by doing so, they took away what being human was in the first place. From seeing the trailer I thought that the film looked very much like a matrix rip off, but when I watched the film I realised not only was it a very different storyline and atmosphere, the action scenes were also very different from those seen in the matrix. Equilibrium does not utilise bullet time like many post-matrix action films have attempted to do, but instead almost develops a new type of action. The people are trained in a martial art with focus on guns - the last fight scene where our hero and "villain" go at it is mental, they are using guns at close range, trying to get shots in at each other, and using the guns like swords hitting the other ones out of the way to try and get a clear shot - very entertaining. Overall although this film lacked credibility and realism, i thought it was great, and although it feels like there are probably pot holes, i can't think of any after watching it my first time, except for maybe one characters obvious emotional expression (although this could've been a ploy). Anyway, this comment probably won't make any sense unless you've already seen it, so go watch!

Once Were Warriors (1994)

Kinda powerful, but very clichéd and cheesy

[5/10 · 4 May 2005]

I was really surprised that this film got such positive feedback. I watched it in college last year for some reason I really can't remember, and I found a lot of it laughable. I see that it addresses social and domestic issues such as sexual abuse, domestic violence and the marginalisation of the Maori descendent's within New Zealand, but the costumes are just so unbelievable 80's, leather waistcoats and stuff like that, and the little electric guitar chords played every time there's a transition between scenes... I mean it just makes it hard to take it seriously. I've never been to New Zealand, but I can't believe that on every ghetto corner there's leather clad muscle men with tattooed faces pushing weights and beating the crap out of each other (I may be wrong though, and so seriously anyone that has more first hand experience, please feel free to correct me). I'm not saying that I don't believe that there's violence, I mean living in Nottingham in England I've been jumped 3 or 4 times within the last couple of years, I just think without using such cheesy, stereotypical and unrealistically 80's looking characters it would've been a lot easier to watch and the message would've been a lot more potent. Apart from a few moving (and sometimes very unpleasant) scenes, it was overblown, unrealistic and generally pretty awful. It seems that a lot of people will disagree with me on this one... it's got me quite confused to be honest, I saw it in the top 50 independents section and clicked on it expecting it to be a different film... Anyway I personally didn't think much of it, but a lot of people did so I won't tell you not to watch it. I'll just assume I missed something. Edit: Just to clarify, I'm really not saying this to get people arguing or to get attention or anything, i genuinely don't understand the status this films achieved... to be honest I'm gonna watch it again and see if my opinion changes, 'cause I've just read through about 6 pages of positive reviews!

Sin City (2005)

Good.... pretty messed up though!

[7/10 · 3 May 2005]

I watched this film thinking that it would be just another comic book adaptation along the lines of daredevil, the hulk and all the other pieces of crap that have been released recently. From this comment you can probably determine that I hadn't read the comics, 'cause Jesus... I mean I haven't seen such a constant stream of disturbing events since natural born killers (which in places has a similar visual style to this, although that might be something to do with the strange use of black and white and colour in both of them). There's murders, torture, body's with severed limbs, cannibals, corpses (and parts of), and overall extreme violence. I almost thought they over did the violence, I mean it's a film that I think a lot of people couldn't hack watching, and at times I had to look away. I think it might trouble me next time I'm stoned and in a dark alley! However, it is a bloody good film. The visuals are really interesting, and they get your attention and keep it throughout. It is generally exciting, keeps the pace up, and keeps a really militant Gothic feel that I haven't seen anywhere else before. It's got some fine women in it as well (although the fact they're killing people kind of detracts from their appeal). On the downside, the film tells the stories of 3 main characters, and they occasionally are seen in each others story, but there's no real correlation between the narratives. It doesn't draw them together properly in a pulp fiction type way or generate enough of a link between them, there just shown and then forgotten. I know that it was just displaying 3 of the characters in Sin City rather than trying to make some "inexplicably linked" style thing, but it still seemed too random and disjointed. The film really is flawed in many ways, and definitely not for the faint hearted, but overall it creates a really enthralling atmosphere and is entertaining to watch

Urban Menace (1999 Video)

This is the worst film I have ever seen

[1/10 · 26 February 2005]

To the best of my knowledge, this is the worst film EVER made. I am not exaggerating, it is not like Showgirls or Virus bad, it is a whole new low. It was only released 'cause Ice T and co. had the money from being successful rappers to finance it itself. I do media and film studies, and we had to make the introduction to a thriller. Compared to this film, every single groups work looked like Usual Suspects or Momento, and it was the first time most of us had used any camera or editing equipment, or had ever storyboarded, written a script, or had any involvement in a film. I'm saying this carefully 'cause I don't want you to think I'm exaggerating how bad it is. The storyline is pitiful and makes no sense at all. The special effects are laughable, and I don't mean that they're low budget but they did what they could with them, they were actually the worst I've ever seen (like pitifully super imposed shots of flames when a building is supposed to be on fire). Instead of choosing actors, they chose rappers to play the parts of characters (snoop dogg himself has since acted well in a few films, but Fat Joe and Big Pun show they're complete and absolute lack of talent, as do the rest of the cast). There is absolutely nothing good about this film. I still feel like I'm not quite stating enough how bad it is, 'cause I've seen so many terrible and laughable films, but this is on a whole new level to anything I have ever seen. I am a big hip hop fan, and therefore have a certain amount of respect for Ice T and a lot of respect for Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe and Big Pun (RIP), but this should never have been made, and if you manage to get hold of a copy i urge you to burn it and therefore erase it from history, so there is no chance of anyone in the future seeing it and knowing that such disgustingly embarrassing things existed in our time.