I just saw the cinema version of Carlos, which runs close to 3 hours. I would recommend this film if you enjoyed Che (parts 1 & 2) and Merine (parts 1 & 2). The long running time allows for an expansive narrative, London, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Khartoum; its like a Rough Guide to 1970's terrorism. Edgar Ramirez is excellent in the lead role, better looking than the actual Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, he piles on the pounds a la De Niro in Raging Bull. I don't know what was left out in the cinema edit, and I was left wondering how a Venezuelan national ended up as a central figure in the Palestinian PLFP. Some of the biggest crimes in the film are the 1970's fashion statements, Afghan coats, leather jacket/shirt & tie combos, and the obligatory berets. Carlos's testicular ailments take up as much screen time as his famous OPEC siege of 1975. I wonder if the inevitable "Osama Bin Laden" biopic will likewise focus on his kidney dialysis as a metaphor for his spiritual decline? Oh, the soundtrack is killer too.
Reviews
4 Reviews
25th Hour
(2002)
Norton has some chops
9 January 2006
Norton is a great actor, as is PSHoffman, but the big surprise for me was Barry Pepper. He's either a really good actor, or a jerk in real life. Throw in Rosario and a Brian Cox voice-over and you have the perfect film. The premise that a drug dealer gets to hand himself in after sentencing seems a bit alien to me with only my experience of the UK criminal justice system, but this a film with a definite sense of place, in particular, NYC after 9/11. I was looking for this DVD in a store today, and I wasn't sure where to look. As most music/film stores sort their merchandise alphabetically I wasn't sure what the procedure was for numbers. I finally found '25th Hour' under 'T' for 'twentyfifth'. I think they should have a shelf just for films beginning with actual numbers in the title e.g. 9 1/2 weeks, 10, 21 grams. 'se7en'goes both ways, so that would have to go in the Alan Cumming section.
A History of Violence
(2005)
William Hurt hasn't aged well
3 October 2005
Basic Instinct 2 seems like a bad idea, but Body Heat 2 would be worse. Hurt hasn't aged well from what we see of him in 'A History of Violence', and its been a few years since someone pulled a rip cord on the inflatable Kathleen Turner. This duo must be contenders for the deepest voices in film. I used to think Kathleen Turner was really hot, and she was in Body Heat and some bizarre film with Rutger Hauer I can't remember the name of. Its scary seeing some actors growing old. Its not so much the ageing process, but rather when they morph into someone else completely. Plastic surgery doesn't help (remember how cute Melanie Griffith was in Something Wild?) but what has happened to Harrison Ford's nose, I swear he's turning into Walter Matthau. I guess the only answer is to die young and beautiful, like James Dean.
Hitch
(I) (2005)
alls well that ends well
2 August 2005
Predictable, but I enjoyed it, and this must be will smith's least annoying film. Romantic comedies such as 'two weeks notice' show how hard this genre can be, especially when they star cutesy geeky Sandra. I also felt this film had a message, that supermodels have feelings also. It made me stop and think how I have been prejudging these hardworking down to earth girls all this time, when in fact they're not superficial bulimic junkies but just down to earth people like you and me. Credit also has to go to the screenwriter, for having a character called hitch who helps people get hitched, its not since 'skeletor' in the he-man series that I've seen such a perfect fit. It was also nice to see Mady Patankin as the newspaper editor, I was amazed to see how much like George Clooney's slightly less attractive sibling he now looks like.
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