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teejay4407
Reviews
Vacationland (2006)
Truly nothing of value here
Awful is really all one needs to know. First think of all the things that could be bad about a movie. And then try to make a movie that is bad in all of these ways. You will have made "Vacationland." The state of Maine should feel insulted: it's much too nice a place to serve as the backdrop for such trite, mindless, boring schlock. I'm a romantic, and I always want movies about two people finding each other to succeed, and I tried hard to find the good in this one. It was tough; very tough. I couldn't find a glimmer of emotional connection among any of the characters in this exercise in humdrum dreariness. Except maybe in one or two of the bad guys.
Maine IS a good vacationland; this movie is not.
L'homme que j'aime (1997)
Quality gay-themed cinema
At the age of 55, I've spent my entire life in the USA and have rarely had occasion to view any "foreign" films. In seeking out gay-themed films to watch in recent months, I've discovered that the majority of those generally rated most highly by voters on this site aren't made here (in the USA), and so consequently, fully half of the films I've watched are European-made.
For me, most of these films suffer from three faults: (1) They tend to me far too "preachy." It feels like every scene is trying to demonstrate some important lesson in life, making the movies seem more like a classroom on the big screen rather than entertainment.
(2) The dialogue, even when it's not attempting to teach me something, is awkward and forced. People just don't talk that way; the conversations are always so unnatural that they come across being emotionless, and I don't don't feel emotion in the characters, there really is no point for my being in the movie theater.
(3) The story line is of little or no consequence, since all of the emphasis is given to making a point (see item 1). As a result, I rarely develop any interest in these films.
This movie was an exception to all of the above. Oh, you still do get banged over the head with some commentary on life's little failings, but only softly, and the dialogue could be warmed up and made more believable here and there, and now and then you want to scream at the way Lucas treats Martin or vice-versa - making them look a bit like cold fish, but those momentary lapses didn't seriously impede my enjoyment of the movie.
On the whole, I can happily recommend this movie to others like me for whom an emotionally interesting and involving story-line is the #1 consideration for enjoying a movie.
Twilight (2008)
Captures the flavor of the book admirably
I'm 64 years old and read Twilight at my 23-year-old daughter's recommendation, and ended up enjoying it enough to read all three books in the series. The movie, it seems to me, was exactly what one should have expected -- expected that is, if you hoped it would mirror the book with some accuracy, which, to me at least, it certainly did. It was, to be sure, a teen vampire movie that was neither deeper or more complex than the book, but neither was it shallower, and the primary actors were, I think, praiseworthy to the extent that the personalities that came through in the movie reflrected quite well what I got from the book.
After reading several reviews here, I expected to hear Edward squeak when he first opened his mouth, but "Surprise, surprise!" -- he sounded pretty normal. If you were expecting to hear Hugh Jackman, then yeah - you were in for disappointment but honestly, when they make New Moon, I hope they use the same cast as much as possible - as long as they can make Jacob a bit more macho-looking once he, um-m-m ..., matures, shall we say.
I never noticed the movie drag and was truly surprised, when it ended, that nearly 2 hours had passed. I'll very likely rent it when the DVD comes out.
27 Dresses (2008)
wonderful entertainment
Light-hearted and lots of fun from beginning to end. Marsden was terrific. This part could have been played as a low-key second fiddle to Heigl, but instead, Marsden elevated it to the highlight of the movie. Heigl, I thought, got just the right mix of feelings for the part, and she and Marsden balanced each other well. I enjoyed her performance thoroughly. In response to one of the comment threads about this film: I'm a straight guy who eventually came to enjoy romantic comedies after my wife got me to watch enough of them, and I really enjoyed this one a lot. Watched it again the next day. Reasonable premise. Very decent story-line. Even believable. Pure fun. Maybe I liked it more than most because this is the first American-made movie I've watched since slogging through half a dozen European-made films which all seemed to be preachy, stodgy, arrogantly-stiff docu-dramas in which the story lines lay somewhere between unimportant to non-existent. Nothing "fun" about a one of them. By contrast, this movie was a BLAST! For me, at least.
Sommersturm (2004)
Not so interesting
There have been many very positive adjectives used to described this film, and truly, I cannot disagree with any of them -- except words like "moving." I never FELT much, except for the feeling that I was sitting in school and being lectured to by a movie rather than a real live instructor. For me it was something of a "docu-drama" that put me in the position of a somewhat detached observer of an academic exercise illustrating -- with little or no excitement, the problems surrounding growing up gay.
I watch movies hoping to get emotionally involved in an interesting story. I could not get to that point with this movie.
Latter Days (2003)
A joy to watch
At the tender age of 43, I've only now slid over to the gay side of the fence and have recently encountered the "Greatest 50 Gay-Theme'd" flicks on Afterelton.com. I've seen nearly 20 of them now, and the only film I enjoyed as much as Latter Days was Brokeback. (I haven't seen "Shelter" as yet - can't find it.)
(Very minor spoiler follows.)
My only disappointment was with the very last scene: why did the director decide to exclude Chris from the final frame around the dinner table? His emotional journey through the film was as important as that of anyone; as such, the camera's focus should have included him as well, to my mind. Maybe my reaction just points out what a romantic I am, but it did sadden me a bit, given all that had happened.
Long-Term Relationship (2006)
Good premise; not so good execution
Note: the only "spoiler comment" here is one I've already seen in earlier reviews.
There truly is potential here for a great story -- kind of a gay romance version of the Odd Couple. All we need is a clever, creative writer to make it work. The really fun, interesting part of this film, to my mind, should have been showing how these two guys went from point A: meeting and clicking at first sight, but then recognizing that there were certain huge obstacles that stood in the way of any kind of long-term relationship, to Point Z: finding resolution, which, in this case, was marriage. However, you are pretty much left to imagine how they got from A to Z; the script doesn't tell you.
In addition, the dialog was rather unimaginative; after nearly every sentence, some little voice in my head said, "Yup--just what I expected." The acting was surprisingly decent, if often lacking in emotional; I kept thinking that had the script been more interesting, the acting would have blossomed nicely, but there wasn't much to get excited about.
In spite of all that, because the basic idea is good, I did enjoy watching the movie, which is why I gave it a "7" instead of, say, a "5".
Beautiful Thing (1996)
Exceptional ending, at least
As an American with very little understanding of the conditions one must deal with when growing up as a British lower/middle class citizen, it was difficult for me to develop a real interest in the main plot because I was continually side-tracked by trying to figure out the significance of all of the interactions being shown. The fairly heavy British accent throws me badly as well, so it was lucky that captioning was provided, but having to read the dialog rather than listening to it makes it harder for me to get emotionally involved in the story.
The many glowing comments I've read on this site are, I think, very well deserved, but because of the difficulties mentioned above born of being a Middle-America Yankee made it hard to really enjoy the film. had it been filmed in the US, by an American director, I'd probably be giving the film a 9 or 10. My "6" reflects my overall enjoyment, though the actual movie quality is decidedly higher. I wish all gay romances could - in real life - end as shown in this film, but I have to wonder: What happened to them after they danced?
But I guess that's subject matter for another movie.
Drôle de Félix (2000)
Entertainment level: close to zero
I wonder why many people like this movie so much. Why was it interesting? I have no idea. I think I have a problem with French made movies; perhaps because of how they are directed, but I think it's just the screen writing. They always fail to develop any interest for me. I've only tried 2 or 3 mainstream films, and now only two gay-themed films, and it was with great surprise that I truly enjoyed "Just a Question of Love."
On several technical levels, "Felix" was quite good; I gave it a "2" because as I sat there watching, I kept asking myself, "Why am I wasting me time doing this?" In the end, all that really matters is whether I enjoy watching the movie. And in this case, I didn't.
It's not that I go mainly for all-action, adventure flicks --- it's exactly the opposite: I rarely watch them. I get the point of the film, but it was not -- for me, at least -- presented in a way that I found the slightest bit entertaining. In fact, the story itself seemed hardly worth telling. I fast-forwarded through most of the movie after the "My Brother" sequence, stopping for a glance now and then. Nothing. Maybe I missed the good stuff.