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Ajaya
Reviews
Zatôichi (2003)
Tried a lot and failed with everything
Takeshi Kitano's 'Zatoichi' was certainly the most disappointing movie of the year so far. Takeshi Kitano tried so much and failed with everything. I can't even say 'nice try' because his trying is just boring, dilettantish, uninspired and most uncineastic.
Frankly, I can't understand all this fuss about this movie, calling it 'a masterpiece'. It's neither a good action drama nor a good psychodrama nor a Zen movie nor visually impressive move. It's just .. crap and cheap on top of it all. 'Ha ha!' is my comment when the director tells a yarn that all the badly done computer graphics mostly for the splashing blood was intended to be 'artificial' and so artistic.
It's much ado about nothing Don't waste your time.
I gave it a 3 out of 10.
Super Size Me (2004)
just an average propaganda film
This film tells nothing .. at least nothing any reasonable person with an average course of education doesn't already know.
SPOILER !!! You eat too much? You'll get fat! Wow! What an insight! END-OF-SPOILER .. but the sad thing is, that you have to spend more than an hour in an theater just to see a guy on the screen eating hamburgers .. then he complains about his worsening health .. then he eats hamburgers and fries .. then he complains about his worsening health .. then he eats .. then he complains .. then he eats ...
The film reaches it's dramatical climax quite early - when you see this guy vomit.
This film is just yet another average propaganda film. Seems that America has a need for propaganda films these days. It's boring and not very well done.
PS: I'm not a fast food fan and I don't work for McD (or alike)
Starsky & Hutch (2004)
yet another could-have-been
Starsky & Hutch could have been a real great comedy making fun out of the 70ies. Stiller / Wilson could have been the ideal spoof of an cop buddy team. And Snoop Dogg was real good playing along. And Stevie Long's story really would have been the basis for a great comedy. But it all missed it's goal by the - most of the time - uninspired .. and sadly much to often dilettantic .. directing job Todd Phillips delivered.
What was in the producer's mind to choose him as director? "Road Trip" wasn't much of a directing job .. and to let him go with a big budget and Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, how could one do this?
The jokes are as "funny" told as the jokes, Marvin tells in "Finding Nemo". The action is almost as professional as in the original 70ies series (which I disliked at the time - btw). What's left is a boring, dull want-to-be-an-action-buddycops-comedy.
Takedown (2000)
Technically awful
This film isn't too bad - although not a masterpiece. What really annoyed me was the cinematography. It's like watching a homemovie ... made without one of these fancy camcorders with blur-compensation. The and held camera sometimes throtters so much that you think "one minute longer of this and I'll get sea sick".
Don't waste your time and watch "Enemy of the State" instead.
Enemy of the State (1998)
it's an important film .. and great entertainment
This film might be the most important one for the new millennium. It has a political message and this message should be heared. Even and especially after Nov. 11, 2001.
And as Billy Wilder once said: "A film which does not entertain won't cause anything", it's one of the best and intelligent "spy thrillers" of the past couple of years. Much, much better than for example "The syp game".
And last not least, it's definitely one of the best performing attainments of Will Smith ever seen.
Get the movie on video, watch it and be assured that the story around the "No Such Agency" NSA is anything else than fictional.
The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
Howard Hawks lives!
Being a big fan of Howard Hawks I really enjoyed this movie. It's been a long time since I saw a comedy for the last time which was made for an audience which already left high school. There are a lot of teenager comedies around and some of them are even quite good (like American Pie I + II). But this film is for those who left their teenage years behind and know what it means to be on the job and to be married (Cynthia: "I haven't made love in five years." -- Oz: "Neither have I. I've been married.").
It's an intelligent Comedy. Good story, great acting and real "Hawks'ish" Dialogues. And the characters are "Hawks' Comedies alike".
If you are at least 30 years old and still love to laugh, this film is a "must" for you. If you are younger, you will still have a great time watching this movie. An who knows? Maybe you can learn something valuable for life ;-)
Zoolander (2001)
what a surprise!
I didn't watch this movie when it was in the theaters because I expected just a more or less dull vehicle to promote Ben Stiller. But what a surprise when I saw this film on video later on! Good acting, good tempo, good jokes, good supporting roles .. and it all fits together and results in one of the best comedies of the year. I still laugh when I think of the scene where Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson spoof Kubrick's 2001 "Dawn of mankind".
Rent it or buy it and laugh!
Loser (2000)
what a waste
The story was o.k. enough to carry a film of such kind as well as the actors. The one who blew it completely was Amy Heckerling. She simply does not have any feeling for telling a story and making the audience to become involved/identified with the characters.
Losers is as bad and uninspired as "Look Who's Talking" was. What a waste of time, money and actor's skill for letting Heckerling destroy it all.
Signs (2002)
plot worse than Independence Day ... almost ...
The plot / plot-development of "Signs" is .. almost .. worse than that of "Independence Day". ID's story consisted of nothing else than a chain of plot holes. "Signs" is not much better.
Well, I don't go to the movies for realism .. especially not if I watch a Science *Fiction* film .. .. but ..
*** warning - spoilers - if you haven't seen the movie yet...
Aliens who travel lightyears to go to earth to harvest men .. and to whom water is toxic.. walk around naked without any protection on a planet on which water is quite common... and they walk around not only unprotected but unarmed as well.. and they even don't have the technical skill to remove some simple nailed on planks (while being able to build warp speed space ships).. and they need to punch huge signs into fields to mark their landing points (still while being able to have supertechnological space ships .. with sophisticated cloacing devices).. and then use these signs at night.. and apropos cloacing devices: they are invisible to radar and cannot be seen at bright daylight - but why didn't they turn off their lights at night? .. and so on .. and so on.
If the script for "Signs" would have been used in the 1950ies to make a cheap B movie, it would have been o.k. (and certainly funny watching it nowadays), but in the early 21st century? .. such a story? Oh lord have mercy with us poor movie lovers.
Sure, technically, this film was a nice piece of cinematic craftmanship, which I enjoyed. But with such a braindead story - it was nothing than a waste of money and time for me to watch this film.
I gave it a 3 out of 10. No "1" because of quite good acting and it's good cinematography, sound, editing, etc.
La pianiste (2001)
sick
This film is nothing else than disgusting pornography. This film will make you vomit. On one hand, Isabelle Huppert might be a great actress. But on the other hand, Hanneke is probabely the worst and incapable director of the past, present and futur of cinematographic art. This film is the combined result of two sick minds: Hanneke's and Jelinek's. It's awful, it's dilletantic, it's bad, bad, bad. It's disgusting. It's sick.