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A Woman Is a Woman (2018)
A heartfelt plea for acceptance
This is a very sympathetic dramatic film following the lives of two trans women in Hong Kong, at different stages of their journey. It's hard to fault the passion and sincereity of the characters, although the dramatic conflict is a tad underplayed given the themes that swirl around the film. It's also nicely shot digitally, featuring many many sunny skies.
Beowulf (2007)
It's a cinematic marvel!
I hadn't heard anything about it at all until the other day, when Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins swooped in for the premiere. So I kinda knew it was computer-generated using virtual motion capture for the acting - which I had a bad feeling about because I really hated The Polar Express.
But I needn't have worried. The actors looked like the actors - hell, forget computer graphics. That *was* Angelina Jolie rising out of the water, as sexy as ever. Even if she did have a scaly tail and impossibly beautiful (if spherical) breasts covered in mud. The sooner cinema gets to the point when you can take home your own computer-generated 3D model of your favourite character as you leave the auditorium, the better. Seriously, the friend I took with me had no idea the acting was computer-animated. She knew something was slightly off, but she assumed it was a side-effect from the blurriness of the 3D IMAX format.
Over here, it seems to have been given a 12A rating. Which is so wrong. The first minute lulls you into a false sense of comfortableness, before it's all blown apart in five harrowing minutes of gore, up close in CGI.
Once I got home, of course I had to look it up on Wikipedia. And while a lot of it did seem to have the Hollywood treatment, I was surprised at how much of it had been "changed" from the original story. Then again, the original tale has probably been augmented a lot (to say the least) over the years...
A Tale of Two Pizzas (2003)
Total waste of celluloid
On every level of film-making you can think of, this so-called film didn't rate on any of them.
The plot was so hackneyed and cliché-ridden that you could plot the entire course of the movie in the first two minutes.
The camera-work was truly terrible - all tight head shots and using no visual pizazz whatsoever.
The actors probably did the best they could with stereotyped characters drawn straight out of some computer combo of West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet.
The worst thing about this film? The central motif is that you apparently need love to make a great pizza. This film had no love in it, and for a film that's ostensibly about great pizza to leave you with no desire to eat pizza is one hell of a neat trick.
Avoid this film. At. All. Costs.
Nowhere (1997)
Total waste of celluloid
Terrible, terrible film. Total waste of celluloid, with no reason at all to watch the film.
It's as if the makers of Beverley Hills Snores 90210 were suddenly given dramatic licence to put in lots of underage teasing and sex, and throw in some non-heterosexual sex for no good reason other than to show how cool they were and annoy the moral majority of America. To do this, they took out any semblance of plot, action, characterisation or any other reason to watch a film. And even the sex scenes weren't much cop.
And then just when there was a plot point, and something interesting happened, the credits rolled!
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
A film with a good heart...
While it's no Bruce Almighty, there are many laughs and good smiles to be had from this film as well as an interesting look at what life was like in East Berlin during that time. There are also a couple of cinematically interesting sequences and a few homages to Kubrick - something you might not expect.
It also has an unexpected good heart - never portraying the mother as an evil monster despite the things she's done, and handles a burgeoning romance quite well. Plus, of course the ironies between the promise of Communism/Capitalism and what you actually get.
As I fatally commented on leaving the cinema, it's not very often a subtitled film can make you cry. Which created a furore from my world-cinema-loving friends...
28 Days Later... (2002)
Not as scary as I thought, nor that innovative - but good nevertheless
Well, after reading all the hype, I was expecting a jump-fright-fest. And given that I couldn't sleep after Blair Witch Project and Alien, I'm a person that's very easily jumped. But it was nowhere near as "bad" on that front. Which may be a bad thing for some people.
The major innovative twist was the oft-quoted seeing London empty - although if I was Danny Boyle, and managed to shut down a street in London for 4 minutes at a time, I'd be equipping some camera people with proper *film* cameras as well as DV ones. Imagine how much more powerful those scenes would have been if he'd brought along a 35mm camera as well as a cheapo DV one.
Speaking of which, the general decision to go with DV was - I think - a mistake. You're never really that frightened (in the conventional sense) of anything since you can barely make anything out! Or maybe that was our low-quality print.
On the plus side, the characters were reasonably fleshed out, and you just had enough time to like most of them.
A couple of new twists on the apocalyptic genre world certainly makes this well worth watching. But make sure you leave time to go for a coffee or a drink afterwards!
Minority Report (2002)
Should have been 30 mins shorter
I read a lot about how this was Spielberg/Cruise growing up. Well, by my reckoning he's still got some way to go.
Spielberg can't help loving the movie magic - with the somewhat childish vision of the future (jetpacks, cars driving up buildings). Although some of it is inspired (vomit sticks, personalised ads etc.)
Cruise, for his part still can't help playing the archetypal action hero - all smiles, graceful moves and muscles. So he might look ugly and vulnerable for a while, but he'll be all smiles again...
The most glaring problem is that if the film had ended at the "first" revelation, about 90 mins in, it would have been a perfect solid ending. Very Philip K. Dick, very dark, very cynical. Instead, they had to tack on more and more endings before they could get to the "happy" ending.
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
Not the world's best film
but it has a great style and finesse. Even if the director did try a little too hard to make it stylish, so it seems more Ally McBealish than anything else. All this to hide a rather basic story of childish love.
It's *extremely* whimsical - so you have to be in the right mood - but the characters and acting are pretty spot on, and it half makes me want to live in Paris. Or at least the Paris in Amelie. Now if only someone would do the same sort of film about London or Cardiff.
Chasing Amy (1997)
Erm... is it saying to be 'conventional' is good?
Maybe I'm reading *way* too much into a Kevin Smith movie, but isn't it very Forrest Gump-esque in the way it seems to suggest that doing 'normal' things is good but doing 'unconventional' things will come back to haunt you in the end? Which seems to be a very interesting thing to suggest especially since Kevin Smith's movies are hardly conventional...
Oh, and Affleck's 'solution' to his problems is totally ridiculous. I just can't buy it!
High Heels and Low Lifes (2001)
Finally, a balanced crime-comedy
Most crime films that purport to be funny usually end up with a few too many laughs, making their criminals bumbling morons. Which may make for some great laughter, but with no real menace to make you wonder why they're criminals to begin with.
Not this film - the balance between menace and comedy is carried out perfectly. The criminals are allowed to be menacing and intelligent (for the most part) while the two leads get on with the job of comedy. At least until the end, when it goes just a bit too far...
My major problem with the film is the relationship between Driver and McCormack. It never quite gels - although that could just be my inability to see McCormack's performance as anything other than Donna Air with an American accent!
All in all, worth a look - but not exactly an Oscar winner.