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Reviews
Christmas at Pemberley Manor (2018)
Incessant, overbearing, nowhere near background, muzak.
I am surprised how few reviews of this movie comment on the so called background music that runs in the forground for around ninety-nine percent of the thankfully short running time. Even if the music was truly background, its unceasing presense would be extremely annoying, but at the excessive volume level it is, it is overbearing and masks a significant proportion of the dialogue which was inaudible above it.
I can only assume that the movie producers decided the dialogue was so terrible that it needed obscuring.
Perhaps I have misunderstood the whole point of the experience. Perhaps I was supposed to have listened to the music and the video in the background was there to add a little interest if I wanted it. If so, too many distracting sounds would have spoiled that experience too.
If there was any redeeming quality, it was the comedy provided by the poor production values. I especially enjoyed seeing the massive crowd attending from within and out of town. It was so vast, the event could have been held in a toilet cubicle. That would have been somewhat appropriate, as this **** of a movie could then have been flushed away.
Fatal Defense (2017)
Oppressive test of viewer endurance
What were the producers of this extended music video thinking? The not particularly good music was incessantly oppressive from start to finish; 86 minutes of continuous acoustic assault. For the first time that I can recollect, I was actually looking forward to the commercial breaks, as they provided some much needed respite.
It wasn't even background noise, and while it never quite overwhelmed the actors' delivery of their respective lines, it was certainly a significant distraction. Then again, given the poor quality of the script, and indeed the entire screenplay, maybe this was deliberate.
The only redeeming quality, it makes one appreciate the beauty of silence.
Not Today (2013)
Important message lost
This has to be one of the worst films I have seen.
'Not Today' has an important message, but sadly it is not the main one..... The religious hard sell is. To a non-believer such as myself, the endless references to God, the church and prayer are appalling. One or two references I can tolerate. But this!? Furthermore, the reasonable quality picture was frequently defaced underneath a layer scrawl. The subtitles, if indeed they can be termed that, since they were not 'sub', appeared randomly all over the screen in random fonts, colours and sizes. They were often made more distracting by being dynamic too. All this, when the viewers' attention should be focused on the images of the appalling conditions and hardships faced by the little girl and her father pictured in the background. On the DVD, I even had the subtitle option turned off, but this distracting 'arty-farty' nonsense remained.
Maybe the makers will think to remake, re-cut or re-edit this to play it straight and simple. Cutting the abundant reference to religion should also broaden its appeal and increase awareness of how badly too many people are still treated in today's world.
In my case, the DVD now resides in the rubbish bin, one of the few discs I have purchased that are not worth enduring for a second time.
Border Blues (2004)
Not much to recommend.
Having sat through this mess I was very surprised to see it had consumed a quoted estimated budget of $10M. Where did they spend that? The acting from all, with the possible exception of the little girl, was terrible. The special effects, which included firing guns, were a joke - cartoons have more realism.
As for the story..... where was it? Simply a sequence of disjointed, badly acted and badly produced scenes.
Was there anything positive? Well.... yes. I was impressed with the fact that natives of Russia spoke Russian and those of Mexico spoke Spanish instead of the universal American that spoils so many other films.
The punchline for the film appears to be "He borders on insanity". Trouble is, it's not clear who they are referring to. On this evidence, most of those involved in throwing this together would be valid candidates.
A Christmas Carol (1999)
Follows Dicken's original well, but....
....apart from Stewart and Grant the acting was terrible and some of the effects were only marginally better.
It is a great story, so I forced myself to see this rendition through to the end. It is not worth another 90 minutes to watch it again.
I suggest you ignore this last paragraph as it adds nothing to my comment on this movie, but I must ramble on to occupy the minimum ten lines of text necessary to be able to share my brief opinion above with others on this forum!
Sorry, I need to add still more needless rambling - the above paragraph failed to add sufficient content to this posting. It appears that unless we are prepared to write volumes about that which we wish to comment on, IMDb will not accept our opinions. Unfortunately, this film is not worthy of great comment and I really do not wish to over do the negativity - not all will share my opinion - so the rambling continues. Surely I have written enough about nothing by now so I will, for the third time, click the "View your comments as they will be displayed" button and see what happens!
The Cat in the Hat (2003)
Good - but not suitable for younger children!
As an adult who has never read any Dr Seuss stories I found this enjoyable and entertaining. The unusual visualisations were especially well done.
The only thing wrong with this movie is it's marketing as a children's film. I do not think it is appropriate for younger children. I know many kids are subjected to similar material in every day life but there is no need to reinforce it and further legitimise it. However, I would imagine that many children would enjoy this, simply because of it's risque nature.
Beware that some of the outtakes and deleted scenes on the well produced DVD are even more extreme than those that made it into the feature!
This film does not deserve it's low rating - it is much better than that!
Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)
Fair portrayal of police intelligence.
Very odd film that has it's moments and is reasonably entertaining. It does however faithfully indicate police intelligence -
Since when were December 1st and May 1st six months apart???? This "statement" was repeated many times throughout the film by Jack.
Gary Oldman was much better in Leon - altogether more sinister.
Trapped (2002)
Director provides last laugh to defeat great acting.
Great acting from Kevin Bacon, Charlize Theron, Dakota Fanning and Pruitt Taylor Vince overcome some awful directing to produce an above average, and at times, very tense thriller..... until the final fifteen minutes.
Luis Mandoki would be well advised to steer clear of all action sequences in future. His apparent lack of understanding of the dynamics of masses allowed all tension built throughout the film to vaporise in the unintentionally comedic farce at the end. Mandoki's naivety is highlighted by his own admission that this is one of his favourite scenes! He should watch "Wacky Races" instead - it's more realistic!
Perhaps we can hope for a special "non-directors" cut on DVD with an ending that the rest of this film deserves.
I Am Sam (2001)
Excellent
I'll clear my misted eyes...
I can think of no other film where ALL participants acted so brilliantly. Even the background extras performed well. 'I am Sam' has been frequently criticised for being emotionally manipulative. I wouldn't disagree, but consider this can only be the result of the viewer becoming so powerfully drawn to all the characters that they really care what happens to them.
Sean Penn is excellent and totally convincing in the role of Sam which is so different to his norm and demonstrates again his great skill. Michelle Pfeiffer played the change in Rita's character throughout the film very well too and she continues to look fantastic.
But the star of this film has to be the amazingly talented and beautiful Dakota Fanning as Lucy. Her acting is so natural, with body language and facial expressions true for every emotion and situation. She was there to be loved and carried it off superbly. Not once did she look lost amongst this celebrated company, incredible considering they were all producing near career best performances themselves.
*** Possible spoilers ***
Sure, there were unbelievable elements to the story, the most serious of which was the reason for Sam's arrest. And, after Lucy had her first night time 'escape' to visit her father, endangering herself by crossing roads and climbing ladders, are we really to believe she was allowed to repeat the exercise many more times! However, many of the events causing criticism I consider to have been misunderstood by the critics. The film is often ambiguous about certain situations or simply lacking in information. How was Sam able to cope with Lucy during her first seven years? The film makes no statement that he did it on his own so why should the viewer believe this to be the case. Many critics appear to believe that the final uplifting scene of the film is also unrealistic. There would be no way in reality that Sam would regain full custody of Lucy, however much we would wish it to happen. But where in that scene does it suggest that he has? Around the football field we see all the major players of a wonderful support network for Sam and Lucy. Any one of them might have day to day care of Lucy, perhaps allowing Sam unlimited access. We don't know, and I think it is to the film's credit that it allows the viewer to imagine their own ending.
*** End of spoilers ***
The superb music is very appropriate with individual songs chosen carefully to complement the screen action. There are two soundtrack albums available, one with all the Beatles cover songs and the other with John Powell's incidental music. Both are very worthwhile and recommended.
In conclusion, a remarkable film, worth watching even if only to see and admire the true art of acting. It contains no sex or violence and the two hour plus running time passes very quickly.
This would be my current choice for a Desert Island DVD, which incidentally is also excellent with many high quality extras adding to the appreciation of 'I am Sam'. 10+/10.
Sarah's Child (1994)
Didn't think films this bad existed!
Why when there are so many good to excellent films out there waiting to be transferred to DVD does such appalling rubbish as this get the nod?
There's no acting ability demonstrated and a script that has all the characters spelling out what's going on in the non-existent story to the viewer at every stage. I didn't think professional films could get this poor. Everyone should see at least some of it (I fell asleep for the last half hour - twice!) just to appreciate how good even the poorest of other films are.
To really cap this off - the region 2 DVD transfer is dreadful too. I don't believe that at any point the sound was properly synchronized with the picture, the error varying from just perceptable to very obvious.
It's a shame I have to score it at least 1. Minus 10 would be more appropriate.