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gfranceschini
Reviews
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Bad at every level
There has been a lot of buzz around this film, but my high expectations were not met. The casting decision is bad: Dane DeHaan is not credible as an agent and Cara not fit for this part; there's no chemistry whatsover between them and the acting itself is very, very poor. The dialogue is basic, cliched and unimaginative as it is the overall storyline. The whole film seems like a bad mashup between Star Wars and Avatar. Very disappointed and quite boring.
Between Lucy and this film, Luc Besson has lost his touch and his golden days of Nikita, The Fifth Sense and Leon are far away...
Pieta (2012)
Absolutely Overrated
I went to see this film because it had won at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, but it was VERY disappointing.
First of all, the storyline and the theme of revenge, which could be quite original and interesting, becomes absurd and annoying. In fact, the main plot seems to use crudity, violence and rage to portray a realistic extract of the Korean misery. However the result is artificial and appears to be forced. Moreover, some violent scenes are totally unjustified and completely random, which becomes very annoying as movie develops.
Aesthetically the film is not appealing at ALL. The photography is absent, lighting insignificant and it lacks of any sort of visual research, in terms of art direction and symbolism. I understand this visual sterility might have been a stylistic choice that underlines the crudity of the story, but in my opinion it's one of the biggest weaknesses of this film.
I don't believe it's a good film and I wouldn't recommend it.
War Horse (2011)
Exaggerated, cheesy but visually great
I really liked this film visually. The locations, shots' angles, colors and set design were great and made this movie one of the best film of the year.
However, even if the storyline was beautiful and exciting, the flow of the narrative becomes boring and excessively dramatic. Everything is exaggerated and pushed over the top. As watching the film I felt like every single scene or crucial event was way too much dramatized, which led me to feel tired of what I was watching.
Moreover, the relationship between the horse (Joey..what kind of name is that?) and Albert, a unique friendship which is absolutely beautiful and moving, becomes pathetic and cheesy. Albert's mad love for his horse is just not credible and absurd.
As a Spielberg's film I was surprised by the acting: some characters (ex. the German soldier's younger brother) were such bad actors and the French little girl had such a fake french accent: I was more interested in her speaking than in her role in the film!!!
This movie was great, but had those few problems... oh well Steven go back to your aliens and dinosaurs!
Le Havre (2011)
Humor Blends With Realism
I really enjoyed this film.
The subject of the film is the problem of immigration and how countries (France) are dealing with it. But thanks to the humor of the characters and of their interaction the film is very light and funny.
The photography recalls realism and gives to the people and the location this sense of consumed and lived, which blends perfectly with the story of the protagonist Marcel.
The characters are absolutely perfect, especially André Wilms (Marcel) who plays his role greatly. However, the character I loved the most is the detective, played by Jean-Pierre Darrousin who makes me remember of Jacques Clouseau of "The Pink Panther".
I recommend this film!
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Genius!
Paris, Woody Allen, art and literature: a great movie!
"That's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying"
Woody Allen is terrific in developing a deep subject into a light and entertaining romantic comedy. The nostalgia for the past and the hope for a better life and happiness in eras of great excitement like the Roaring Twenties or La Belle Epoque is explored through the fantastic adventure of Gil, whose personality and mentality grows in this past world thanks to the help of his idols: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso,...
Many of us have a favorite artist, painter or writer and we look at them as models. The wish of meeting them and experiencing their life, surrounded by many other famous artists is very common among us: who hasn't dream of living in another time period and being remembered as a great hero? Allen portrays this in a very realistic way, in a certain sense. Gil's experience is so unrealistic that becomes realistic in the movie.
Midnight is a special hour, magical in many other films. The hour when nights and dreams approach. When the impossible becomes possible.
The plot is original and amazingly set in a magical city like Paris; acting is great and the characters are perfect.
I absolutely recommend this film! :)
Anonymous (2011)
Boring, Long and Poor
I found this movie boring and extremely long: 130minutes for this movie is definitely TOO MUCH.
The movie doesn't have any sort of excitement especially during the first half of it. The second part becomes more interesting and intriguing, however the confusion of the theme of the whole movie and between the characters make this movie illogic and tiring. The theme of the movie isn't defined in fact there is a lot of confusion between the fraud of the Shakespearian works and the conflicts of the era that surrounded the crown.
As a movie on Shakespeare and on the dynamics of his success I wanted to see a deeper analysis on W. Shakespeare's character, instead what we're shown is just a synthetic outline of this character.
For the first part of the movie the audience doesn't sympathize with any of the characters: Ben Johnson is pointless, we might feel him only during the ending scenes, but I think is a hateful character and the Earl of Oxford that should be the protagonist doesn't seem to be it.
Moreover, I HATED the reconstruction of London made by computer, it gave to the film this sense of artificiality and surreality, which didn't helped at all the plot.
I admit, the acting was fairly good and the story itself is very interesting as a new vision of Shakespeare's fame and works. However,the film lacks of any sort of excitement and characters study.
I recommend this movie to everyone that wants to wast 2 hours of their lives!
In Time (2011)
Exciting but lacks of meaning and structure
The basic concept of the film and the idea that time is money, it's very innovative and original idea for an action movie. However the film lacks of a structure, the main characters are played fairly good by Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried but the other characters are meaningless and their role is not clear throughout the film.
For example, when the timekeeper talks about Will's father we would expect an explanation or some kind of connection between the timekeeper's revenge over Will's father and Will himself, but this doesn't happen. The character of the father is thrown out there without meaning or point in the storyline.
Yes, there is suspense and drama in the film that allow us to watch the movie with interest, but the film's structure is badly built and some character would have needed more story behind them.