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Holy Motors (2012)
A conglomerate of pointless ideas glued together by a theme of actor-ship
My expectations from this movies decreased as I watched through it. This is one of the movies which tries hard to be on the artistic side of this industry. However it fell short to its intentions. There are many positive elements in the movie. Acting is great. Music and cinematography are almost perfect. On the other hand, the sum of all these good things does not resulted in a great movie.
Holy motors could be entertaining. This is true only if you are not expecting any well made story as its backbone. I don't see any story in this movie. Its only an Idea going on forever. There is no connection between the elements expect the common theme of actor in the car moving around, doing his "Appointments". Nothing is going to get out of his appointments and they simply don't make sense.
You may start to think and try to find a meaning in this movie. And it is possible to find meaning when you try hard about anything. Holy motors reminds me of Holy mountain by Jodorowski. However there is a difference. Holy mountain is about the absurdness. Holy motors is absurd. Few philosophical ideas or intellectual dialogs which are sprinkled in the movie could not help to make it any better.
Lack of harmony is the main deficiency of the Holy motors. It seems that the director just liked some cinematic ideas and used them wherever he felt good about it. In this movie you witness some musical scenes, a little bit of horror, some eroticism, a little bit of sci-fi and in the end you are left to deal with a fantastic talk between the holy cars. And it is not a comedy. If it was a comedy then many of these elements could fit together. Unfortunately, the movies portrays an ever-increasing melancholic state with a solid color of seriousness.
In the end I should mention some positive factors that make it a watchable movie. Denis Lavant's acting is great. His performance as an actor is at its best. You see him change roles as easy as changing clothes. He is the one who saves this movie in the end.
Che (2014)
A bold approach to one of the controversial topics of Iranian history
Hatamikia is a well known director in topics related to Iran-Iraq war. Although his personal believes could be found in his art, he could not be categorized as a propaganda movie director. Che is about Dr.Mostafa Chamran a prominent figure in in evens after the Islamic revolution of Iran.
The movie portrays a pacifist-spiritual figure of Chamran in the context of Paveh city siege by Kurdish separatist militia. He is reluctant to kill, he prefers to negotiate rather than fight. This approach is in contrast with the radical Asghar Vesali (Pasdaran Commander) or separatist leader or Dr.Enayati, separatist leader. This continues until the end and never changes, so we never see Chamran as a warrior type rebel similar to Che Guara as expected.
This high expectations comes from the title of the movie which is similar to Che Guara name. In addition we know that he was the person who formed and trained Pasdaran Corps in Iran. He had a long history as a militia fighter in Lebanon. Even in scenes he is involved in a fight the actor fails to show any sign of a seasoned warrior. His firing scene in hospital looks more like a video game rip off. Fariborz Arabnias' weak performance results in a character who is not a good leader nor a good fighter. His tone of voice is very soft and weak. It is a shame that they couldn't persuade Parviz Parastui to act this character, who would certainly illustrate a more lively Chamran.
Even the role of Chamran in Kordestan events is not portrayed well. We see a very subtle effect from his presence in the outcome of the struggle. I think this is a weakness because we expect to see "something" because of his presence in there. That is a problem in many Iranian movies and roots back to weak story writing. Story teller is only an observer of a troubled person trying to be nice and prevent massacre, however in the end he could not even save a single life. So what was the purpose of telling this story if he was not effective in this struggle? From the historical point of view it is not a historically accurate movie. The events are still hot and controversial topics in Iran. Unfortunately there is no independent historical research about Chamran's life that the movie could be based upon. As a result parts of movie are based on artistic inspirations of the director based on known facts. Hatamikia claims to have done his research on the topic and been thinking about this for 10 years. However, few people are satisfied with this movie. Kurds or even Army are portrayed as remote non important factors in the event. Hatamikia don't give any deep understanding of the situation.
The sound effects and music are great. Music is beautiful and thrilling. It is bold and original. The sound effects are comparable to any modern Hollywood production. Matched with artistic shots of the director you could enjoy a high quality cinema experience. However visual effects are not as good as they are described in Iranian media. You could easily locate cheap computer-made visual effects all over the movie. However, compared to similar Iranian war movies it is better and maybe that's why it won best visual effects prize from Fajr movie festival in Iran.
If you are looking for a historical movie about Dr.Chamran's life or the events in Kordistan you may be disappointed. You will find less than a Wikipedia page. However, it is a well made Iranian war action movie that could be enjoyed as is.
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
Repitative scenes, bad story, poor acting!
Although I watched this movie with low expectations from the previous title it totally disappointed me. 3D graphical effects lose their awesomeness after passing of first 15 minutes. The story is not even remotely historically correct nor good as fiction. Some actors play well but in the shadow of superficial story they could do no good.
This is just another movie made to appeal for 3D cinema market. It seems that they felt some force to include something in every scene that could be seen by 3D glasses. Particles passing in foreground out of nowhere. The movement design of particles is so poor that you can see how some one is setting a specific movement path for them. Maybe moving them by hand in a semi-random fashion; Unrealistic and bothersome. 3D blood effects are excessive. In every battle scene these computerized blood splashes could be seen spreading in slow motion in the air! After a couple of these effects it becomes repetitive as every other special effect in this movie. Watching someone play a modern video game would look much more realistic than this.
If you can ignore the 3D effects there is the awful story. They tried so hard to make connection between this and the original movie. However, they made it worse. And I don't understand why they felt the need to repeat words "democracy" and "freedom" so much! Moreover they made a black and white movie with no gray area. In this movie, Persians are the absolute definition of evil and Greek are the absolute definition of good, with the exception of treacherous Artemisia! I don't go into discussing historical facts, if you are interested go read some books. It is like some propaganda movie made to increase the moral of soldiers fighting for freedom and democracy in modern world.
Even as a standalone fiction many things do not make sense. The characters depiction is very superficial. There is some primitive effort to make some background for Artemisia, however it does not fit with the her personality in movie. She is not a clever military commander who is seeking revenge. She is more like a poor commander who is ready to kill her officers brutally and at the same time she invite the Greek commander to have sex with him! It looks like a misunderstood woman who is looking for a man! And this unnecessary sex scene is more like an effort to replicate a porn movie in 5 minutes. I think there is also some inspirations from game of thrones here. Showing some skin to make some guys happy? Acting is another poor factor. It is imaginable that acting with a green background and no real world clue around could be hard. The result show people who are trying to convey some meaning but does not make sense at all.
However this movie could be considered a good comedy. This is the movie that you can watch with a group of friends, so you can laugh during the movie by finding unlimited number of flaws in story or funny special effects. There is no history here, maybe a result of bite size information age. Story is disappointing and pointless.