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6/10
Fast-paced, action-packed beautifully atmospheric lackluster story
24 May 2015
The movie is good, but I think it suffers from a couple of major problems.

One problem is that the main character is too weak. If there is anyone taking the lead, it is definitely Charlize Theron. Mad Max is completely shadowed by other characters, even secondary ones.

Another problem is the action is dull and repetitive, doing very little to carry the action forward. This is also the case in Fast and Furious, but in this case this is explicit and it is what the audience is expecting. The content of this Mad Max movie (including action that actually moves the story forward) would probably take no more than 30 min. All the rest is "just" show (though a beautiful one!).

The design and scenography are brilliant, no question about it. But I think that for example the design in Zack Snyder's 300 is more coherent and a better contribution to the overall experience. The story in 300 is clearer and simpler, and every element and action scene makes it move forward in a clear way. This is not the case here. Characters in this Mad Max are empty shells, simple stereotypes with little content, mere puppets in a grandiose artsy atmosphere, with no inner life.

Most of the action is completely reactive, with the characters in pure survival mode very rarely demonstrating anything of their inner self and their back story. I am all for not being spoon fed the back story, and against "talking heads" describing their background in lengthy dialogs. But this movie suffers from the opposite problem. Only very rarely did Mad Max suffered from flashes (quite literally) from his previous life, but it felt really completely out of touch with anything.

In the end, I didn't regret watching the movie (specially in the cinema), but it really felt a bit short. At home, I don't think I would recommend, unless you watch in a very large TV.
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Your Highness (2011)
5/10
No quest could save this movie
17 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This movie had it all... Adventure, Magic, Mighty Heroes, Hideous Villains. A personal journey to self discovery. A faithful aid. Natalie Portman's tushies. Even the sexual appendage of a beast from Greek mythology. All this combined with the total freedom for politically incorrect jokes.

How could it fail, right? But it did... big time! They ruined everything... as bad as the main character was ruining his life at the beginning of the film.

The premise for a fun-packed satire fails from the start, rendering the story too goofy for a serious movie but also too slow and just not funny. Even the politically incorrect jokes come out inappropriate, not in a funny way. It really gives you a feeling of frustration to see such good potential go to waste.

Unfortunately there's no amount of questing to turn this one around.
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Ripple Effect (2007)
5/10
Futile Exercise
7 March 2009
I saw the movie just because I generally like the subject: Ripple Effect. I mean, it's appealing... the idea of unpredictable chains of events.

But I have to admit this movie was horrible. Not because it is a low budget movie, but because they completely ignored the audience. The main character is so unattaching that you cannot really relate to him (worsened by the really poor acting of Mr. Calland). Furthermore, the story is so abstract it becomes meaningless. Then there is nothing to attach to than vague monologues (not even particularly mentally stimulating) of Forest Whitaker (which, together with Virginia Madsen, may be the only two that do the minimum in this movie to deserve the title of actor).

This movie might be interesting as an exercise for some directing class in the University, but not for release as a commercial title. The movie is so self-centered in its futile exercise of movie-making that it completely obliterates the viewer... and when that happens... there's just no turning back. Fast forward... really fast.
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7/10
How to ruin a movie with the soundtrack
5 July 2008
Warning: Spoilers
As soon as the film started I was immediately shocked by the rock music in the introduction... but OK, I thought it might be to give a dubious message about the time of the movie. But then it continued throughout the whole movie... I'm not against using modern music for historical movies, but not when it is clashes so obviously with the movie ambiance. The worst I saw of the type was Charlie Chaplin's silent movie "The Gold Rush", where they put a Polka as a background music for a sad moment in the movie!! OK... here it doesn't go as bad as that, but still is annoying.

And it is a pity because the movie is really very interesting and worth seeing. Kirsten Dunst was great and all the ambiance in the French court was nicely depicted. Did things really happen like that??
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5/10
Yet another Artsy Godard-inspired French movie
21 June 2008
I don't like Godard... I'm not saying he's a bad director... I just can't stand his movies! The first time I saw a Godard movie I told myself I would never see another one... but then I said myself I could not draw any conclusions by just one movie... and I made the error of watching yet another Godard movie (oh how I regretted it!).

Then I said myself Godard could not be representative of French movies... and I risked watching other movies. Even if from time to time (sadly still frequently) I continue to have disappointments I have to say I saw many interesting French movies.

But then I committed the error of seeing this movie. The general topic attracted me: a romantic entanglement with a bit of sci-fi intrigue. But as soon as the film started I could see it was a typical French movie (the type I don't like...) and as time passed I started having flashbacks from my first Godard nightmare! The problem is not only the complex romantic scenarios with long and strange (for me, at least!) dialogs which transform my movie sessions into nasty torture. If it wasn't already bad enough, I couldn't find anything in the movie I could relate to (yes, you can call me crazy, I need things to relate to in a movie!). Even the sci-fi part of it disappointed me! If the first 15 minutes were like a typical french romantic artsy-horror, I spent the rest of the movie cursing me for deciding to watch the movie...

Damm you Artsy Government Funded movies!!! It's the last time I'm going to watch such a movie... until the next!
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Superbad (2007)
6/10
Not SuperBad but not SuperGood neither
9 November 2007
When I went to see this movie, I was in a great need for a laugh... I wanted a ludicrous, fast-paced teen movie packed with intelligent (I would even accept tacky) jokes. That was not what I got...

Instead what I got was a solid script, with credible characters and situations. It is even an interesting depiction of teenage-life stereotypes (although short as such). I may admit some of scenes may please a young audience (clearly much younger than I am), but most of them didn't cause me more than an amused smile or even a smirk. The worse thing is that such scenes were followed by long periods of plain situations.

Thus I think there is way too much hype going on about the movie, as it fails as a serious movie (which it is not supposed to be) and it is not sufficiently demented to cause more than the occasional giggle... and that was not what I wanted.
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Avida (2006)
4/10
Neverending nonsense.
10 October 2006
Avida is a game of words mingling life and eagerness, but I personally think this movie was overblown by its ambition and does not make justice to its title. It gathers a set of awkward characters united by unbelievable links. Furthermore, the way everything is connected at the end is, in my opinion, a bit pathetic. What remains of it was a set of images... an interesting one, but not enough to make this a good movie.

I believe this film is supposed to be a comedy, but I surely didn't noticed! The nonsense and caricatural nature of the movie is actually the only good thing about it, but when it drags on an on and on it becomes no longer bearable. I have to say I fought hard to continue seeing it until the end, and I am still not sure it was worth it...
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