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dan_allegre
Reviews
God Bless America (2011)
just as dumb as what it's rebelling against
It could have been brilliant. There seems to be a very good understanding of pop culture.
The problem is that the understanding it too good. American audiences are too dumb to get anger unless the blood *totally* splatters all over the wall. OOH AWESOME HUR HUR!
The movie pulls at the same exact strings of self righteousness that reality TV attempts to tug at. It's as though you're actually watching American idol (only it's like, cool dude, cause it's totally for the irony bro) with a lot of soul crushing American style shoot-em-up thrown on.
A big step down from the Chapelle's show mixtape: Vol. 2 for Bobcat.
Another Day in Paradise (1998)
good, but not new ground
From the name of the movie to the not too ambiguous ending, we're in Hollywood. The premise is pretty familiar if you've ever seen more than 5 movies that are rated 'R'. It's a shoot-em-up (lots of heroin and guns) with the familiar sexy antihero couple roaming around the American southwest playing a high stakes game and dealing with character issues (though in this movie we get a new twist because there are two couples instead of one and one of them is old, so you can watch it with your parents).
That said, the cinematography is really easy on the eye and the acting is excellent. James Woods gives a great performance even though he plays the same character he plays in other movies he's been in (casino, once upon a time in America, the onion field).
Many of the reviews of this film include some comparison to Lary Clark's other big film, "kids". To me, it's hard to compare these movies because the intentions are so different. Which one you like better depends upon, well, what kind of movies you like (you probably would't like them both equally). I'm more of a 'kids' type of guy.
Over all, a pretty decent flick. There's a lot of art and subtlety to the acting and there are some pretty powerful scenes. It could have used to loose some of the stanky Hollywood chiche's (how many brains have you seen get blown out in the movies in your lifetime?), but they can be fun I suppose. Maybe VH1 should have a 'top 100 brains getting blown out scenes' show.