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Reviews
Home for the Holidays (1995)
Really loved it, underrated masterpiece!
This movie is totally based on characters for it's an adaption of a short-story and they're all great,without exception. It's about a family that meets for Thanksgiving although I wouldn't say it's a family movie, at least no typical one. It's funny, sad and weird and everything at the same time, just like life, and in that lies its power and beauty. There are not many movies dealing with such things like the everyday madness families go through and most of them are whether unrealistic or boring or even both. Jodie Foster directed this one with a lot of love for every single character and it's very easy to relate to them. Holly Hunter proves once more how great she actually is as a woman in her mid-thirties who's struggling with a lot of problems when she faces the largest of them all:celebrating Thanksgiving with her family. Go see it,no matter if it's Thansgiving or not!
Hannibal (2001)
An absolute disappointment for Thomas Harris-fans!
I'm a big fan of Thomas Harris,I read all his novels at least 5 times and Hannibal's the book I really love the most.Therefore the movie was my biggest disappointment and I really don't get it why some folks here give it a nine or even a ten.Either their demands are very low or they haven't read the book or both.Even if I hadn't read the book I'd still consider the movie as absolute average and I'd give it a five. The creepy,mysterious atmosphere from the novel doesn't appear one single time in the movie,when I saw it first in the cinema I even fell asleep.Why was Margot Verger, a very important character, totally omitted? Why was Barney shown as a dumb ignorant whose only ambition is to earn money? And most of all, why was the psychological process Starling went through in the end,caused by the drugs Lecter applied to her,descended? Not to speak about the fact that the ending was omitted,too,and totally changed? Well, the reasons why Jodie Foster refused to play Starling again are well known and I accepted it,although like surely many others I'm very disappointed 'cause I identified Starling with her.For stories like Red Dragon,The silence of the lambs or Hannibal that possess such psychological depth, it is very important to identify with a character when they're adapted for the screen,but as the Germans say, that's "snow of yesterday". Ridley Scott did some incredibly good movies but with this one he doesn't live up to his name. Jonathan Demme had exactly the right feeling for the plot, the characters and their relationships towards each other in The silence of the lambs, he should have done Hannibal,too.My only comfort is that I've seen the movie only two times,it's long ago and thank god for that reason I'm able not to see the scenes from the movie when I read the novel. I'm so sorry but I really can't recommend it to anyone.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
The value of life, packed in suffering and pain
I haven't read the somewhat 1400 comments on this movie,but I'm pretty sure that many of them tell the same. This is the only movie I've ever seen that I don't ever want to watch again, for no money in the world. But it's also one of the greatest I've ever seen.How do these things go with each other? Well, I'm a very empathic person with experience in acting, and no movie ever before could touch me so deeply and make me burst into tears. Why? It is so unbelievably cruel, honest,dark, hopeless and yet so revealing concerning the precious gift of life and the things that make it worth living. When I watched it about half a year ago, I had no idea what it would be like, I thought, well, maybe a pretty good movie about drugs, I also hadn't read the novel which I did now, it's almost as disturbing as the movie.Anyway, after about 45 minutes I had to fight to stay in front of the TV because I felt and experienced everything the characters did and I thought I couldn't stand it any longer, I thought I'd go insane. Especially the fast cut-scenes in the end and the unbelievably disturbing sound were almost more than I could sustain. I have some experience concerning drugs, and some shown feelings and situations were not new to me, but so was the brutality and honesty they were shown with, free from all disguises and useless package. When it was over I couldn't stand being alone and went to a friend, who used to live in the same house. When he opened the door he immediately asked what was going on with me, because I was so pale. I told him I'd seen the movie and he just smiled and said: "Oh, alright, I understand, with me it was the same." And then we talked about it, for more than five hours, and after a certain time I realized we weren't talking about the movie anymore but about life in general, about our hopes, dreams for the future and so on. At that point I understood the movie's value and also its beauty. It leaves you, as Frodo says in The Lord of the Rings, naked in the dark, and it's up to you to figure out whatever can help you get into the light, which means, what can make your life rich and fraught with love. And it shows that, no matter what hell we are going through, we need love to survive and we have to fight for it 'til our very last breath, like Harry Goldfarb does in the movie. If I ever gave a 10 here on IMDb for a movie without thinking, I do it for this one. Parents, if you want to prevent your kids from taking drugs, show them this movie and talk about it afterwards, believe me, they won't ever even touch a joint! After I've read some comments now that say those who like this movie don't live in reality, I have to update mine. I can give you guys only one answer: Sorry, but it's you, this movie is reality! I had a lot of friends who died from drugs and I saw them during their last time alive, two of them committed suicide. I know what they were going through and how they felt. And you want to tell me this is unreal and they just got what they deserved? You make me sick! Don't talk about anything you've no idea about just because you're afraid!
Dawson's Creek (1998)
Smartest teenage TV-series ever
As there are already more than 200 comments on DC, there's no particular reason for me to express my opinion.But my love for it just makes me do it. Finally we got a teenage serial that's intelligent, has a lot of love for its characters and takes the needs, fears, expectations,dreams and hopes of teenagers seriously,with much psychological depth. When I was a teenager, I didn't grow up in a nest like Capeside, but I didn't even experience a fifth of what Dawson,Pacey,Joey and Jen are going through,or maybe I just feel like this 'cause I never had such good friends and they all put their feelings into words. The language in DC is so pretty, sometimes even poetic, and I think we all wish we could express ourselves that way, at least from time to time.I love watching the episodes and dream about my own growing up and ask myself: What would have been if...?, or:What would I have done? The main characters are so well thought up that everyone's got at least one he can especially relate to: Dawson, the everlasting dreamer, who wants to make his fantasies come true and is doomed to failure because of reality's cruelty. Pacey, the solid, grounded rebel who knows himself very well but has no idea about his future. Joey, the girlfriend of everybody's dreams, pretty, intelligent, creative, strong-minded, with incredible vulnerability and integrity. And last but not least Jen, an absolutely honest, strong girl, who has to deal with her unlucky past and wants to prove that she's a good girl who deserves love, and fights for it. I love them all, especially Pacey, who would surely have become my best friend if we had met in real life. The superficial plot of DC may sometimes seem a little boring, but it's the things going on in the kids'minds and hearts what makes it very worth watching.I have been waiting all my life for something like DC, thank you, but I'm afraid there will never be anything comparable. 10 out of 10!
Van Helsing (2004)
VG next to the title?
Looks like we still got some very smart specialists here on IMDb that still didn't get it. Folks, the VG in brackets next to the title means Video Game... 9 out of 12 people wrote a comment on the movie, my my... How could anyone take you serious when you don't even get the easiest things? Besides that, why do you all complain about it? Did you really expect an intelligent plot and acting on its highest level? Well, if you did, I don't know what to say... Back to the game, it is nothing outstanding in the action adventure genre but it's still fun to play 'cause Van Helsing is, similar to Dante in Devil May Cry, very fast and agile and the weapons are o.k., too. But the hard mode really lives up to its name, I haven't completed it yet, but I keep on trying. It has a high replay value and there's enough action to never make you bored. So, fellas, next time look carefully what you're posting for.
The King of Queens (1998)
A bright needle in a beam-less haystack!
As over the past ten years or even longer the whole world is flooded with so-called sitcoms (actually only very few deserve this title 'cause they're so predictable), King of Queens is a very original, unique and astoundingly funny alternation. It's about the daily life of a deliveryman and his wife who works as an attorney's assistant in Manhattan in Queens, NY. With them lives Carrie's father Arthur, a picture-book extrovert, who is played by the fantastic Jerry Stiller and who steals the show from all the others every time he appears. Other important people are their best friends Deacon and Kelly, a married couple, and their other friend Spence who's almost 30 and still lives with his mother. What makes this show so unique and funny is, above all, that every single character seems so real and Carrie's cynical, sarcastic attitude is the total opposite of Doug's good-natured, slightly dumb optimism.And Arthur's the one who makes it absolutely unpredictable with his strange ideas and habits. He often gets himself into trouble and Doug and Carrie have to drag him out of the mud. Even if in my opinion the quality of the show decreased a little within the last years it's still one of the best daily sitcoms ever made. It takes a little time to get into the characters and relate to them, but after that's done, you get some unstoppable laughs from it. Although I think I couldn't survive one day with Arthur in a closed room without beating the guts out of him, I really adore him in this show. Watch and have fun, I give it a 9 out of 10.
A Time to Kill (1996)
Outstanding actors, timeless story, a must-see!
For me this is actually one of the best movies I've ever seen, not only 'cause of the great performances of all main- and supporting actors, but most of it all because of the message and the feelings it gave me while I was watching it and even still gives me. People are watching movies for the same reason they listen to music or look at paintings, they wanna feel. We all have to come along with people of different colors, nationalities and whatever. The best and most peaceful way to do that, like it's mentioned in the movie, is to listen to our hearts, which for me is the message that the director and screenplay-writer wanted to bring along. I hope I got the message, on any account it made me cry several times which is a thing not many movies have achieved yet. For me as a German who dealt a lot with the history of his own country and also a little with the history of the Ku-Klux-Clan, it was good to see that those people are shown as just what they are: A bunch of mind-sick, dumb and dangerous Nazis. The whole situation in the movie in my opinion stands at the appropriate rate to reality of that time in the south of the United States,what makes it very authentic and traceable. The reason I call it a timeless story although it's certainly set in a special time is that everyone is almost forced to think, at least subconsciously, about the way he or she is dealing with those problems of difference that are always gonna exist. I highly recommend this movie but I will not say enjoy or have fun 'cause you won't find these things in "A time to kill". I also love the title 'cause when you think about it, everyone can become a murderer in the right circumstances. But what you're gonna find is a captivating story, acting on its highest level and strong emotions.