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joshriley
Reviews
A Torn Page of Glory (1968)
A masterpiece
Forget any previous representation of modern warfare. I watched this gem in the mid eighties on video, and after hunting for it for several years, I haven't been able to unearth a copy of what can only be described as a true masterpiece. You have unstable sets, some of the worst dialogue committed to film, action sequences which will induce dangerous laughing fits - be warned, take long deep breaths!!
We follow several soldiers in 'Nam, discussing their lives back home - cue flashback softcore sequence. It goes mercilessly from soldier to soldier, each 'personal story' about 'life back home' somehow even more wince inducing than the last.
After watching this, you're perception of film will be altered irrevocably. A Torn Page Of Glory is the only film singularly capable of inducing grown men of military age from all different nations/ideology to tears of laughter. In fact, a good copy of this film could be exploited as the new lethal super weapon. Simply broadcast it continuously to your enemy forces and watch them crumble right in front of your eyes.
A rare undiscovered 'Nam movie, painfully recreating the true horror of modern warfare.
White Noise (2005)
An intriguing idea ruined by pedestrian direction and an uninspired second rate script.
What should have been an intriguing film is ruined by pedestrian direction and an uninspired second rate script. Watch this film if you want to experience some of the most clichéd, one-dimensional characters to have ever graced the screen. Before Michael Keaton's pretty/best selling novelist/pregnant wife leaves, she mouths, 'I love you.' You just know from that point, where this lame redundant thriller is going.
What drags out for the remainder of the film has to be one of the most convoluted and incomprehensible story lines that I have ever witnessed in a movie theatre. It seems that the only thing not included in the story is the presence of a clockwork mouse and his knowledgeable sidekick terrapin, who together direct Michael Keaton's character towards yet another series of implausible plot tangents, resulting in his character tumbling headfirst down an endless cavernous plot hole.
White Noise is endemic of a new direction in horror, films that present a watered down, saccharine remodelling of the genre, whose only purpose is to act as yet another lame money making enterprise. The only thing this convoluted film makes abundantly clear, is the increasingly inventive and sophisticated marketing campaigns required to elevate dull material like this out of the cinematic wilderness.
Instead of sitting through this mess, just rent any of the recent Asian horror films: Ring, The Eye. Just wished the makers of this film had bothered to watch them, but then again they probably did, and look what happened!