esmeralda80 Reviews

There Will Be Blood (2007)

An arty-farty mess

[1/10 · 18 December 2007]

This is the most overrated movie of the year. It is endless, confused, and a pure example of a filmmaker who has utterly lost his way. Daniel Day Lewis puts in a dreadful performance in which he seems to be attempting to channel John Houston. He is, quite simply, doing Houston in The Treasure of Sierra Madre. The screenplay structure is hopeless and meandering. The length of the film is self-indulgent and unwarranted. This may fool people in this calendar year. It has apparently fooled many critics and perhaps members here, although I suspect studio shills account for the good rating. There Will be Blood will soon be dust. It will never, ever stand the test of time.

American Gangster (2007)

slick but ultimately boring

[5/10 · 3 November 2007]

This is a beautifully directed film that is without a point or a theme and is about unpleasant people. Both leads do a good job but are woefully miscast. The visuals are dazzling but it's impossible to care about anyone. You follow a 70's heroin dealer, played by Washington, and the honest but emotionally bankrupt cop who is after him, played by Crowe. As a result, unlike the Godfather, you never are rooting for either character. The drug dealer is glorified, his amoral acts painstakingly justified by events in his past, when in fact this is a man who imported vast amounts of a deadly drug that decimated the culture and hope of his own people. The cop is friendless, sells out his only buddy, is unemotional when that buddy is killed, and is shown neglecting his son and screwing random one night stands over and over. If you didn't get the point the first time, hold on, you'll have seven more chances to get it. The first hour is entertaining enough, although any intelligent viewer will squirm at the idolization of Denzel's drug dealer. After that, the middle is repetitive and drags. I have no clue what the screenplay is trying to say, or what the director believes the film to be about. I wonder if Denzel Washington would like his children to admire the character he plays as much as he seems to.

The Good German (2006)

Bad Soderberg

[2/10 · 14 November 2006]

I entered the screening of this film with high expectations. How could this cast, this director and this writer not deliver? For the first 45 minutes I tried to understand where the complex plot was going, and continued to believe that this could be a terrific film. Then I started to look at my watch. By the hour mark it was sadly clear that the entire enterprise was going to add up to disaster. The characters are thin and stereotyped. The underlying story is small and has no current day resonance. But finally, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. One character appears to be living in a subterranean hideout, then in the next scene suddenly can be found lurking in the balcony of an opera, for no apparent reason. Clooney's character is a journalist, but never does a bit of work. His overpowering love for the hooker with a heart of stone, Blanchette, is inexplicable. And the great reveal on which the plot turns is a bore. The film is reverential and deferential to old World War 2 movies and film noir, while never working as either. Why would stars sign on to this sorry script? I presume they wanted to work with Soderberg. But a good portion of the time, this director absorbs himself with arty-farty nonsense. This film attempts to be high brow, but that just makes it all the worse. It's intellectual pretensions make the bad writing and paucity of emotion or ideas all the more pathetic. Someone needs to shake Soderberg and tell him that as paintings are flat, and sculpture three dimensional, film has an inherent nature: it is a mass medium. The great works like The Godfather or Rules of the Game, are complex and deep, but most of all, they are entertaining. No one drags out any more to a lousy multi-plex and puts down ten bucks or more to be bored, talked down to and left puzzled. The audience I saw it with sat in stunned silence as the lights came up, astonished the film should have so little to offer. This is not even worth a DVD rental.

Casino Royale (2006)

Best Bond ever

[10/10 · 14 November 2006]

Super charged testosterone popcorn movie with a great love story at its core. What more could you want? How about locations that will gob-smack you and state of the art action sequences. This is the must see film of the holiday season. Want to forget about your daily grind and live in the fantasy world of a great tough-guy hero? Paul Haggis scores again with a screenplay far beyond most action films. And it's faithful to the book, has humor but no irony. Aren't we sick of irony? I never thought I could love a blond Bond, but he's fantastic. And instead of watching girls in bikinis come out of the ocean and fall into Bond's bed, we get to see the man himself come out of the ocean in a tight little Speedo. The six pack delivers big time. See it all on a big screen with the best sound. This is not one to wait for the DVD. It's a MOVIE.

King Kong (2005)

Jaw-dropping entertainment

[10/10 · 5 December 2005]

There have been few advance screenings of King Kong. At the one I attended, no one knew what to expect. The room was packed, every seat taken. As we waited for the film to start, we learned the running time was over three hours. How could it possibly hold our attention for that long? The lights went down and from the first minute, you could have heard a pin drop. This movie is incredible. Not only are the effects head and shoulders above anything seen to date, the story is riveting. King Kong is a thrilling, fantastically entertaining fantasy film for adults. But it is also a deeply emotional love story. Several times the audience broke into spontaneous applause. By the end, the screening room was filled with grown men and women weeping. The tail credits lasted nearly ten minutes. No one left their seat. King Kong will make a fortune.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Extraordinary film, Oscar contender

[9/10 · 3 December 2005]

This is a visually stunning film that packs an emotional wallop. It builds slowly and takes its time, but is never boring. Heath Ledger delivers a heartbreaking performance as a man who wastes his life because he cannot accept his own nature. Any fears one might have that the material will cause discomfort or inappropriate laughter are quickly dispelled. The pure quality of the observation, the depth of the intellect displayed both in the script and behind the camera, the sensitive level of the performances and the high quality of all technical credits translate into a rare cinematic experience. The cinematography is a lock for the Oscar. The spare and elegant screenplay is also a strong contender. Ledger will surely be nominated and possibly Gyllenhall. See it on a big screen with the best sound possible.

Walk the Line (2005)

fun but overlong and simplistic

[7/10 · 28 November 2005]

Given the lousy films out there this year, this picture is far better than most. It does not, however, stand up to last year's "Ray", which is strongly resembles. Nor does the film touch on the particularly interesting thing about Johnny Cash, the spiritual duality of his nature. Cash was was strongly Christian but was open about the fact that he had committed all of the seven deadly sins. His humanity came from his humility about his own shortcomings. His core Christianity is barely touched upon here. Actual incidents from Cash's life are totally fictionalized. A strong story point is made of the fact that Cash's father blamed him for the death of his brother. A reading of Cash's most recent autobiography indicates this was never the case. Cash seems to appreciate and revere the hardships experienced by his poor, hard working father. Yet the film continues to portray Cash's hard scrabble parents, the source of his authentic "country" background, as simple- minded, cruel and cold. It is no wonder that June Carter's daughter walked out of a recent screening of the film in anger. The final resolution of the story is weak. The film takes the position that Cash beat his addiction quickly once he won the heart of June. In "Walk the Line", she saves him as she triumphantly chases his dealer from the property. The family of any addict can attest that a cure is never that easy. And in reality, Cash continued to struggle with drugs for much of his life. Joaquin Phoenix's performance, which is excellent, gives the film a gravitas it would otherwise lack.

Syriana (2005)

excellent, challenging, not for you if your favorite film is Wedding Crashers

[10/10 · 26 November 2005]

Complex and interesting, restored my faith in movies. Yes, it is difficult to follow, but the thinking person won't get lost. Don't bring Grandma or anyone with memory deficits. Never boring. Great performances all around. Would sustain repeat viewings. For anyone interested in the art of film editing, the work done here is particularly crisp and fine. Lensing by Robert Elswit is of Academy award caliber. Particularly daring is the portrait of the evolution of a suicide bomber. Plot takes twists and turns that cannot be anticipated. One of the side benefits of the film is the inescapable conclusion that the average American knows little about the Middle East or the forces at work that drove us to war, and there is much we will never know. On the down side, like many Hollywood films, this one presupposes our government and intelligence agencies to be far more clever and co-ordinated than they actually are, but that is the nature of most thrillers.