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DjiM007
Reviews
Any Way the Wind Blows (2003)
alternative video clip
Any Way the Wind Blows is Tom Barmans (who is also know as front man of the rock formation 'dEUS') debut movie. Entirely shot in Antwerp (Belgium), the movie starts on a sunny friday morning and skips rather superficially between the events that fill the day of a dozen of main characters. When the movie ends, you have a lot of stuff to think about, because most of the different story-lines are left wide open.
The movie has a (purely instrumental) sound track that will rock your socks off. In most scenes, the music truly enhances the general atmosphere and feel, really making the movie hallucinating to watch at certain points of time. The main scene in the film, the party, is very well shot.
The director didn't hesitate to use video clip techniques, having his main characters dancing on one of the best sound tracks I've heard lately.
The screenplay is great stuff. Camera angles and colors are very well chosen. The 'costumes' are very hot and very 'seventies' too. And I loved (most of the) acting.
The thing I liked most about the movie, are the subtle touches of absurd, surreal, very dry or even cynical humor that interleave.
Without claiming to be a comedy (this movie certainly is not a comedy but rather an alternative piece of art), it still manages to have its audience giggling and even burst into laughter at some times.
This is one more directors' debut that shouldn't be an ending. I hope to see more Tom Barman movies in the future because I had a good time. Cheers.
Alias (2002)
Wasted money
This movie was an absolute waste of money (for me buying a ticket and for the Flemish govt. paying for the production). Even though the beginning of the movie is okay, it gets worse and worse and keeps getting worse; ending up as a terrible movie. Awful acting, bad and uninspired camerawork, a terrible story, this movie has it all. Jan Verheyen, the director, makes it all too easy for the audience (at the end of the movie one of the main character just tell the story in 2 minutes instead of telling it with images) and directs this movie as if it were a (bad) theatre play. When Hilde Van Mieghem starts acting as in a theatre play too, things go wrong. Really wrong. Even I can do better. This movie stinks and the people who gave it a score of 10, don't know anything about movies (and they probably think that 'shrek' is the scariest movie ever made).
The Mexican (2001)
Cool movie... (maybe some spoilers down here)
I like this movie... It's a comedy with a simple story becoming really complicated. If you've seen the movie, you will have to agree with me that the fact that some elements keep returning in the movie is great.
Leroy returning, the "cute" dog returning, the guy with the leg-shot returning, the car which is used to ram the Mustang (now I hope it IS a Mustang) returning (with one light missing :-) )
Anyway, I like this movie because of the light-footed atmosphere around and because of the details.
The Boondock Saints (1999)
F***
If every time the infamous f-word appears in the movie would have been replaced by a beep, in my head there would still be beeping right now.
No, this movie is great. There is the beautiful (read: quite interesting and funny) story about an Irish twin cleaning up Boston's streets, wiping out syndicate clans and other scum. I also loved the general atmosphere in the movie. Beautiful colors were used; making it a totally non-pulp-fiction-alike movie. It really made me think of bright happy happy joy joy summer days -setting the ideal atmosphere for the film-. Colors can help setting a flick 's atmosphere; and maybe I wouldn't have liked the movie that much if it were much more dull, misty and gray.
The dialogues between the two brothers, discussions at the police department about who did what, how and why... These things spice the whole movie up.
Only weak point: the ending of the movie. Just have a look and agree with me.
I give it a 9 out of 10... Recommended if you want some suspension and a good laugh...
Iedereen beroemd! (2000)
Nice and charming movie about casual people
"Everybody becomes famous"
I saw this movie in a sneak preview. When its title came on the screen, I had something like 'oh no, not a Flemish movie'
You bet I was surprised at the end of the movie. It was a great film with enormous charming capacities.
The story is about a young girl, wanting to start a career as a singer. Pushed by her father, she tries to win one of the local soundmix-competitions. Unfortunately, she isn't that much of a beauty. When her father loses his job in the local bottle-factory, he decides to take some serious action to launch his daughter to the top of the Flemish show-business.
This movie is charming, charming, charming and I really enjoyed it... A must see.
Chicken Run (2000)
Nice technique, but I was bored to death
When you look at the techniques used in Chicken Run, you can only be amazed: it's a wonderful piece of work -and patience- done by the animators.
When you look at the jokes used in the movie, you will be a little less positive I guess. The humour is not really high-level humour, but well... if that's the only thing that's not that good at all in this movie...
Alas, it isn't. Really, the story itself was boring; and the attempts to bring some suspense into the plot were... err, let's say good tries.
So the only thing I did during the movie, was observing the techniques used. That's interesting, but not worth a 5$ ticket. Nice try, boys and girls. Next time do it better!
5 out of 10; only worth watching if you are younger than 12 or if you are interested in the wonderful techniques used.
Die Hard (1988)
Continuous suspense makes this movie a real masterpiece
Well yeah, I've seen this movie 3 times yet, and I even liked it the third time.
One of the reasons why I like it, is because the main character is not a godlike macho killer spreading bullets around and killing thousands of bad guys. He (Bruce Willis in his younger days) is just like the guy next door, put in a claustrophobic situation, which gives the whole movie a nice score on credibility. Not too bad for an action movie. Also, the plot is decorated with some cool one-liners and humorous situations.
Maybe the influence of this flick is much larger than one might expect. Lots of today's computer-games are based on "Die Hard"-alike action. The same weaponry, combat and so on.
Well, i can't exactly tell you why, but I really adore this movie. I guess that is because it's a perfect mix of humor, action and suspense. And even if it was made back in 1988, it still is a movie worth watching...
Let 's give it a 9 out of 10