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Reviews
There Will Be Blood (2007)
a bad night at the movies
Dreadful, self important cow twaddle.
There is beautiful detail but the arch of the story is ridiculous.
Its a shame that DDL will be anointed with another Oscar for this ham bone of a performance.
This is what passes for great acting?
Someone yells 'fire; and everyone flees.
Someone yells 'brilliant' and no one dares say, 'the emperor has no clothes'.
This movie and its main actor are stark naked.
I feel very sad for the four other nominees who gave thoughtful, nuanced, and powerfully relevant performances....they were robbed.
King Arthur (2004)
Coulda been a contender
SPOILERS:
The legend of Arthur is so replete with wonderful stories and ideas that a film about the real folk who inspired these tales should have been fantastic. But this movie most decidedly was NOT. AS a reader and lover of all things Arthurian, I believe I could have written a better script.
And I think I could have done a better job as director because I would have fired the producer. Then the film might not have been gutted.
Therefore, perhaps the story would have made some kind of sense; the characters would have been supported by back story and would have not have appeared to be so ridiculous; and audiences would have actually cared who won the battles.
Clive Owen is a nice looking man. But he is totally exposed as a twit in this film with very little help from the director or script, therefore his big 'dramatic' scenes were laughable. By the end of the film I was hoping he'd take an arrow in the chest and stop bellowing such inspirational claptrap.
The wonderful actor who played Lancelot should sue. This movie should have made him an international star. Instead his body was stuffed into a hole, lit up, and the movie quickly moves on to the wedding.
Kiera worked hard to look good and wield a bow with authority, but without a back story, she was some blue chick who seemed to know a lot more than seemed probable and suddenly appeared half naked to do battle. Who knew?
I could continue to list flaws, but enough.
The bright spots? The score and I learned that there is a Danish actor named Mads Mickellson (sp) who can play a very convincing ninja and is very sexy. Sadly he gets sliced and diced at the end and his body thrown around like a sack of potatoes, but at least his hawk flies free and he lives on as a horse. So that's a consolation of sorts (?).
The 'creators' of this film did not 'get' either the story or their likely audience. Totally and completely disappointing.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Jack Sparrow, chameleon extrordinaire.
I enjoyed the film in the theatre and the DVD adds yet another layer to that enjoyment.
The background information reveals that the producer, director, writers, and actors were relatively relaxed, but thoroughly dedicated to creating a very entertaining story. They were doubtless intimidated by the recent theatrical failures of the pirate genre, and that only spurred their dedication. To our benefit.
But the leading man and the writers were not completely trusted.
The deleted scenes are quite telling. A number of them illustrate Sparrow's more sober and somber and ruthless characteristics and reveal him to be an even more ambivalent character...perhaps more than the makers of the film could credit the audience with accepting....but what a fascinating character he is. Hopefully, the sequels will allow Depp to fully inhabit this chameleon. I look forward to the possibilities.
Dead Man (1995)
"Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night"
This movie grew on me. The first viewing, I was both fascinated and horrified. But watching it several more times, the poetry, the journey west, and the simple lessons learned all added to the shear beauty of this film. But if you are quickly bored, squeamish, or need the standard 'Happy Ending' please steer clear of this one.
For those other adventurous souls, there are so many amazing scenes in this movie:
William Blake's journey west was his descent into hell; the fireman is his the ferryman.
Blake carries a bullet (white man's metal....'I'm a magnet") next to his heart most of the movie.
The deleted scenes include several jewels: 'a small blue bird tasted my blood.....'
The scene around the campfire, with Blake surrounded by the trappers, animal skins hanging in the background, each plucking at various parts of his body, laying claim to the spoils (they think) was both funny and terrible.
The wounded, lost, disheartened Blake mixing his blood with the dead fawn and laying down beside it to 'try on death'.
"Are you William Blake?"....."Yes, I am. Do you know my poetry?"
Nobody, guiding William Blake toward his hopeful, peaceful destiny, trying to protect him from the demons trailing him, all the while preparing him mentally for his departure.
The final images of Blake.....
Humor mixed with beauty, laced with the grotesque.
This is a fantastic film. I'm rather fond of it. Give it a try. who knows? It might make an impression.
The Man Who Cried (2000)
images as poetry, music as dialog
I enjoyed this movie, much more than I thought I would reading the synopsis of the story. I was caught up by this meditation on human spirit.
The cinematography created one stunning image after another, carried along by one of the most beautiful soundtracks that I have heard.
Two couples, sharply contrasted; one couple told you everything about themselves, while the other revealed only what could not be hidden: Susie and Caesar were stoical, passive, watching, and waiting....as a catastrophic moment in history enveloped them.
It seemed to me that the director purposely expected the viewer to participate in the story, using imagination and wonder to ponder the unanswered questions about human nature and need.
The ending of the film was a bit too abrupt. I would have loved to have seen more development leading up to the resolution of Susie's journey. But it certainly didn't mar the film for me, rather it emphasized why 'The Man Who Cried' was so completely non-commercial and why it mystified and therefore angered the 'connect-the-dots' crowd.
If you are in the mood for a beautiful, lyrical, non-linear poem-film, give this one a try.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
Either you get it or you don't
"Once upon a time in mexico" plays like a hot, fevered half-remembered dream fable. On first viewing, it is a mad rush of jumbled images, guitar chords, and wild, swirling action. It was only during the second viewing that I found the story and much of the strange beauty of this movie. There was a delicious dichotomy to the film: the hot revenge driven Banderas and the cool, detached, manipulative Depp. By the end of the film, each had been altered irrevocably and the story had arched into legend.
This film neither seeks, nor wants the approval of everybody, as some of the whining reviews here would prove. You either 'get it' or you don't. Its as simple as that. If this film hasn't hooked you by about 20 minutes into it, you're not going to enjoy it. Any criticism after that is pointless nit picking. Do yourself a favor. Leave. Don't look back. Shrug it off. Go see another movie. "Dickie Roberts, Child Star" is still playing.
But for those who stay, enjoy guerrilla film making at it's purest, most spontaneously combustible form. This movie, after the usual second guessing has withered away, will also become legend.