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Reviews
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
Read the book
Having read and re-read the book "Daddy Long-Legs" I was unsure about seeing this movie. I eventually did see it and have regretted it ever since. It shouldn't even be called "Daddy Long-Legs" as it has very little to do with the book. It only takes the basic frame and warps it completely out of shape. Read the book, DON'T see the movie.
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
hunky-dunky
I just got this movie for Christmas and have already added it to my favorites list. A cute and simple story which makes a beautiful movie. Who could not love Uncle Felix or not have their mouth water at the sound of all that food. Definite points go to Sydney Greenstreet for his performance of Alexander Yardley and also to Reginald Gardiner who played John Sloane, the impossibly boring fiancee. Truly a gem to be watched every Christmas.
South Pacific (1958)
Boring
I love musicals but this just bored me stupid. The score was lacking where it could have been so much better and the entire thing was far too long. And what was with the color? The changing color filters were distracting, annoying and unnecessary. O&H did so well with musicals such as 'Oklahoma' and 'State Fair' but totally missed with 'South Pacific'.
The Dream with Roy and H.G. (2000)
The Greatest Show on Earth for two weeks!
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were amazing. Everyone except NBC had a great time, and about four days into the whole thing, people noticed that after coverage of the actual Games finished on Channel 7, Roy and HG were doing their thing for the other two hours of the day. As Australians, we knew them, knew their humour and how they worked. Foreigners in town for the Games were shocked as to how two complete `unknowns' dared to make fun of the IOC, and present its own anarchic Olympic Mascot, Fatso the Fat-arsed Wombat. As anyone who was there will remember, Fatso (The Battler's Prince) became a celebrity. Athletes smuggled him around so they could hold him on the podium as they received their medal. Gary Hall Jr was seen pouring beer down his throat. He dived off the platform and sank straight to the bottom. And when the time came to auction him off, he went for over $80,000 and now rests in Channel 7's Hall of Fame. But back to the actual show. Roy and HG pulled no punches in making fun of everything. Drug scandals, falls in gymnastics, the sheer stupidity of greco-roman wrestling, and fencing's incomprehensible rules. They even made fun of the whole pin craze, with the special Fatso pins, that were worth so much (no one is allowed to make another) They were a huge success, with everyone wanting a ticket to the live presentation. Unless you were an athlete, in which case you wanted to be on it. The studio was the hottest place in the world. It's strange - before the Olympics, John Clarke's series on ABC (`The Games') was seen as the best commentary on what was going to be a huge disaster. The Dream came on, with a terrific idea, that the whole thing was going to be great. They were right, and were THE huge success story of Sydney 2000. Channel 7 had better release a video set. It'll sell like hotcakes. It was simply, the best thing on TV for two weeks, and is now only a memory. It's strange - people miss the Games, because they were so much fun, but we all remember the Dream.
Stone (1974)
Great film
Stone is undoubtedly an Australian classic. It has some great sequences - the funeral ride is just beautiful. Its end was something different from what I expected as well. Unfortunately, the words like `man,' `cat' and `heavy' show us how old the film is. Nonetheless, it is a distinctly 70's film and a distinctive Australian film. See it.
The Wind in the Willows (1983)
Perfect
There have been several versions of The Wind in the Willows, and this is, without a doubt, the best of them. Everything about is wonderful. It has magnificent animation and looks beautiful, and is written and played excellently. This is as good as movies get.
Melrose Place (1992)
Glad it's gone
Okay - so when it started out it was too nice, then in came Amanda. We had a whole lot of bitchiness, sleeping around, marriages, divorces, alcoholism, deaths - murder, disease and accident, and a whole lot of peroxide. It had maybe three or four years of huge success, and then it just fell apart. Stories and dialogue got lamer and lamer, and I'm just happy that it's finally dead.
La vita è bella (1997)
Truly brilliant
Rarely does a film make you laugh loudly and cry. La Vita e Bella did that for me. ROBERTO! is fantastic as Guido, and is well supported by the rest of the cast. The script is excellent, with a great mix of slapstick and good humour. This film reinforces the fact that foreign language films have a hell of a lot to offer the English-speaking world. La Vita e Bella is definitely in my top five, and easily the best tragicomedy ever made. 10/10 for the best movie of the 1990s!
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Should be gone.
How we are expected to like a film with two such awful people as leads is beyond me. Scarlett and Rhett are two of the most self-obsessed and self-righteous people I have ever seen. Moreover, the story is simply one disaster after another that we really don't want to hear about. I have enjoyed some of the great epics, but this was far too self important. Mercifully, Hattie McDaniel is wonderful as Mammy. What is also good about the film is the photography, as it is with most epics.
Schindler's List (1993)
Excellent film, but flawed.
I found Schindler's List a wonderful movie. It is one of very few movies which are watchable over three hours. Moreover, one of even fewer which are moving, fascinating and entertaining over its three hours. It comes second to La Vita E Bella in terms of presenting the real holocaust, though - not in terms of realism but because in LVeB, we care more about the victims. In SL, we care about Helen and Stern, but not too many others. In LVeB, we care about the family, and so it is even sadder when the holocaust takes its toll on them. The most powerful parts of SL are either the scenes without dialogue where we see mass suffering, or where Liam Neeson places his demands for Schindler's Jews. The balance of sentimentality just wasn't right. In most of Spielberg's work, there is too much (I did fear it and when we got shots of the children, I almost felt like walking away) but in SL there was not enough. However, I gave it a 9, because the film as a whole was more than these flaws.
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Awesome
Basil the Great Mouse Detective is one of the most underrated cartoons ever made. It's wonderfully funny, has great songs and a fantastic story. Okay it's standard Disney, but it's brilliant cartoon. A perfect 10!
Ordinary People (1980)
How wrong I was...
I expected to hate this movie. I'd heard bad things about it - it was an Academy movie, it was boring, it was crap.... It was on at 2am here, so I set the video to tape it. I watched it soon after, and I was shocked how good it was. The first part of the movie is, admittedly, a little slow, but after that it's brilliant. Tim Hutton is wonderful as Conrad, although it seemed to me that he was just about the lead actor and not supporting actor. (still, I like the fact that De Niro and Hutton both won Oscars that year) Redford does an excellent job (except for the first few shots...they DO look more than a little pretentious.) as a first-time director, making the film as a whole a great experience. 8 out of 10
The Godfather (1972)
good, but...
The Godfather is a good movie. That's where it stops. It is not a great movie in any way. Marlon Brando gives the worst performance in the movie, being at best pedestrian in his role, and at worst immensely boring. (Laurence Olivier should have won the Oscar for Sleuth or Peter O'Toole for The Ruling Class) Mercifully, the supporting cast was excellent - Duvall and Pacino especially. Caan was good as Santino, but suffered a bit in overacting his rages. Part of the problem with this film is the book it came from - the book is about 450 pages long, and has a complete story for just about every character on screen. Unless Coppola wanted a 10 hour movie, he just couldn't do that, which I understand. I'd read the book shortly before seeing the film, and I have a lot more respect for the book. I would like to see Part Two, given that a lot of people say it is better (I can easily believe that). I gave The Godfather 8/10, because, as I said, it is a good, but not great movie. Truly great movies include Life is Beautiful, The Professional and A Clockwork Orange.
Central do Brasil (1998)
A pity about LVeB
This is a fantastic movie. I saw it and La Vita e Bella on the same day, and I immediately felt sorry for Central do Brasil. Life is Beautiful is the better film, but CdB is still breathtaking cinema. I gave it 9/10, and can't help but feel that this film will be forgotten behind LVeB. A pity, cos this one is so good.
La vita è bella (1997)
Truly brilliant
Rarely does a film make you laugh loudly and cry. La Vita e Bella did that for me. ROBERTO! is fantastic as Guido, and is well supported by the rest of the cast. The script is excellent, with a great mix of slapstick and good humour. This film reinforces the fact that foreign language films have a hell of a lot to offer the English-speaking world. La Vita e Bella is definitely in my top five, and easily the best tragicomedy ever made. 10/10 for the best movie of the 1990s!
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Horrorshow!!!!!!
I had read a lot about `A Clockwork Orange' before seeing it, basically because I was unable to see it. When I saw it two days ago, I thought that maybe reading a lot about it would make the actual film disappointing. It was better than I had read about. This is the greatest film ever made - better than The Professional, and that takes some beating. The overacting by the minor characters is excellent, as is Malcolm McDowell. Why this film didn't win all sorts of awards for art direction and costume design is beyond me. (as well as for best film, director, actor, editing, cinematography and adapted screenplay) Kubrick uses music in such a brilliant way, like in 2001, (notice its display at the record store) making for a great experience for eyes and ears. ACO is thought-provoking, funny, entertaining, and scary. Everything a film should be and more. Viddy well, brothers.
Friday the 13th (1980)
Three moments
This film has three memorable moments, for which I give it 3/10. They are: the opening title, where the words `Friday the 13th' shatter glass; Kevin Bacon and the arrowhead; and Jason attacking the girl in the boat. Those three moments are cool. The rest of the film is boring, and the horror violence is hilarious. The shadow of the axe being raised and then the girl screaming with the axe in her forehead are simply wonderfully bad. Avoid this film, unless you want to see crap horror.
To Die For (1995)
Highly Overrated
To Die For is shocking. Totally overrated, which includes Kidman's Golden Globe performance. The film is largely dull, predictable and pointless. Why people enjoy this is beyond me, as it's a dreadful movie.
Bugsy Malone (1976)
A wonderful send-up
This movie is a great send up of all gangster/crime movies. All right, the kids are cute half of the time, but it's all fun. Jodie Foster does a wonderful job as Talulah, and it's worth noting that she's the only one who made much after this flick. (Forget Scott Baio's attempts at salvaging a career). Bugsy Malone is awesome fun, with good lines, good music, with some slapstick melodrama thrown in.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Genius
The Academy snubbed THIS? Easily the best film of 97, and one of the best in this decade. Exceptional performances from all, particularly Russell Crowe. He and Guy Pearce made a brilliant duo. It was a shock to see Babe's Farmer Hoggett as a bad guy, though. This film should have won everything last year, but more importantly, everyone should have seen it.
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
Self important drivel
When will people learn that music is not the be all and end all for inspiring people is in fact fairly useless in this respect? The film attempts to show that music creates champions and that everyone who tinkles the ivories has the potential to be a concert pianist. Not a good film, filled with Hollywood cliches and it is overly long and BORING.
Platoon (1986)
it's not AWESOME
Platoon is not up to the standard of Best Films (although it is much better than Titanic). Its major problem is that it's clean. I saw it a while ago, so I may update this later, but my memories of it are that it didn't accurately portray the war itself. Other than that, my biggest disappointment with it was Elias' death. Pure Hollywood style. Not a bad film, but with flaws
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Keep Saving Ferris
The eighties had some dreadful stuff, and some truly brilliant works. This is one of the latter. The first time I saw it, I didn't think much of it, but when I saw it for the second time, I loved it. I got slightly caught up in the `Save Ferris' hype, even though I saw it when it was 11 years old. Nonetheless, it's timeless. The hairdos and clothes don't appear that dated, and it's still enjoyable for all. If you love a good comedy, check this one out. Now.
Léon (1994)
If only you could vote 11...
This is easily the best film ever made. Luc Besson is a genius, and this confirms it. Nikita and The Big Blue, both great films, hinted at his brilliance, but The Professional truly delivers. I became a huge Jean Reno fan after this masterpiece, and when you see it, you'll understand why. There isn't a weak link in the film, and the acting of Gary Oldman really shines with Reno. If you haven't seen it, you're missing something awesome.
Titanic (1997)
worst movie ever made
I've seen some shockers in my time, but this excuse for a film takes the cake. I had some respect for Cameron and Winslet before this one, but all that was ruined by Titanic. Easily the Academy's biggest mistake of recent years, and certainly the aforementioned film stars. (I had little respect for DiCaprio, however, so he isn't tainted any more) Billy Zane must have been desperate, as even if he's not the best actor around, he's still a popular choice for me. A script that couldn't have been recycled into toilet paper, combined with bad acting and a bad story make Titanic a disaster, rather than a disaster movie. For a good romance, check The Princess Bride, and for disaster, see a good war movie - try Gallipoli.