gabrielemorra Reviews

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Wonderful underwater visual effects but half of movie lost in battle

[7/10 · 9 January 2023]

This could easily have been James Cameron masterpiece, as the progress done with underwater 3D special effects, creation of new creatures, absolutely perfect realist beings, dynamics, etc. It is stunning and the part where Sully family lives on the islands and learn the new near water world is pleasant to see for adults as well as for children. But then literally half of the movie is lost in an incredibly dull and boring battles between the "good guys" and the "bad guys", which is so against the point made by Pandora's people during the entire movie.

I just ask myself why it is so. I believe that the producers of the movie planned to spend so much money that they believed that by turning it into an action movie would have assured success. But honestly, I think they missed their chance. A lot of people went to see it, sure, but how many will see the follow up? So many, like me, were so bored by the story that they will not. They have just been shortsighted by their fear of creating a better story.

Io so che tu sai che io so (1982)

Well directed and interpreted bittersweet comedy

[9/10 · 5 November 2022]

It is surprising to me how little is this movie known, even in Italy. I watched it when I was a child and then again as an adult, and I always found it simple and impressive.

Sure, the idea that the private inspector might follow the wrong person is silly, but the personal path of the couple played by Alberto Sordi and Monica Vitti is realistic and convincing.

Many of the movies made by Alberto Sordi had simple messages, and this one as well, something that based on popular wisdom, not on intellectual sophistication, and I think that this coherence with his believes gives the movie its strength.

Blonde (2022)

Tons of crap sadness for no reason

[4/10 · 4 October 2022]

In a review, one should first talk of the positives. And the positives are the magnificent reconstruction of the scenes and the costumes and the expressions and the voice too (yes, people complained about the accent of Ana de Armas, but I don't care) of Marylin. But everything else was just a horrible disaster. The figure of Norma Jean, the real protagonist of the film, not Marylin, is depicted like a joke. Who believes that the same person who left Hollywood for going to study acting in New York at the peak of her career, who was so able to act in dramatic roles, a real artist, was like a powerless stupid baby never able to come to terms with her terrible childhood. This movie is just selling tons of crap sadness for no reason. It made me angry, and then angry, and then again.

Poongsan (2011)

Pop-corn movie

[5/10 · 19 January 2013]

I started to watch this movie after searching "Kim Ki Duk" on YouTube. I thought first that he was the director and found out only after finishing to see it that Kim Ki Duk had only written the script, otherwise this would have been just a major disappointment. Apparently Kim Ki Duk, who produced it, Juhn Jai-hong, the director, wanted to make a pop-corn movie for less than 200,000 dollars. And if this was the goal, they have succeeded in that, as this is just a typical movie with a lot of shootings and unrealistic scenes a bit like in Rambo, or in a Bruce Lee movie. Only 3-4 times one recognizes the "touch" of Kim Ki Duk in the script, however if the story was potentially interesting, and provoking for somebody like me who lives in Korea, one just feels that it was too much like a B-movie, that the director lacks experience, and probably also a decent budget. Also in many Kim Ki Duk movies, like "Dream", for example, there are unrealistic parts in the script, but the movie is always so well done, the photography is so great that it compensate for all the rest. Here it is not so and I believe that cutting 30 minutes or so would have saved me some moments of absolute boringness in the mid of the movie. Overall I gave 5 star as an encouragement for the young director for producing it in such a short time, some good ideas and for some panoramas of Korea that I always like to watch.