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samiyam
Reviews
Once Is Not Enough (1975)
Once Was Not Enough? Oh YES IT WAS!!
I saw this because I like Kirk Douglas and have been looking for his most obscure titles to flesh out my catalog of viewing... This qualified as obscure so I rented it at the "we have everything" videostore. YUCH! This movie deserves to be obscure! The production was trite, the story stupid, most of the characters seem to have phoned this one in and Kirk looks silly trying to do his normal workmanlike job against this panoply of mediocrity. This one should have been burned. What can I say? Jaquiline Susan was an aberration of the seventies which we all look back upon with horror just as we look upon bell-bottom jeans and afro wigs as abortions of bad taste blocking up the world. This movie is unintentionally bad.
Briar Patch (2002)
Underrated rough gem
Arie Verveen seems so filthy and stupid when the film begins and the sets and settings of the movie show such filth and unpleasant sights that the viewers begin to be disgusted. Watching the movie, I felt as if I was afraid to touch any surface and I felt that I needed a scrub-brush or a hose. These feelings, however, shouldn't allow the viewer to see that the movie is a fantastic psychological thriller under the surface. Arie Verveen, evoking the ghost of Brando, delves deeply into the character of his part to show how you never know what's what or who someone truly is until you get beyond the skin. Strong performances by Dominique Swain as the childlike bride, Henry Thomas as the brutal husband Edgar and Karen Allen as the modern-day witchwoman down the lane add depth to an already deep pond. An interesting viewing, I'm looking forward to more from Deborah Pryor, who provided a very well-made story.
The Transporter (2002)
Almost a good movie!
WARNING!! SPOILER AHEAD!!
This movie, along with the unbelievable and smalzy ending could have been great. The action sequences are fairly good, though the gun use and the fact that the bad guys seem to be able to come back from being knocked out or down a bit too easily. It is for the action that this movie rates a three out of ten. The acting is stagy and the dialog is unbelievable and the plotting is poor. Other than that, it's a good movie.
Where the Heart Is (1990)
Finally! A comedy which is funny and well acted
One of John Boorman's finest films. Dabney Coleman rises above his paper-cutout character status of the "bad guy" to become a basic family man with real family problems and the "kids" played by Hannah, Glover and Amis are really fun characters. The plot actually has twists in it that make the whole thing fun to watch and the ending has a "rightness" to it which lets you come away from the film with a good feeling about life and people. A really good way to spend a couple of hours.
Bless the Child (2000)
Could'a Been a Contender!
Having read the many comments about this movie by people who seem to either hate or love this movie (mostly upon religious lines), I feel I must comment...
This is at best a mediocre movie with a fascinating and beautiful concept behind it. Not being strongly based in either pro-Christian or pro-Devil worship (""For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - Hamlet, Act III), I want to comment on the movie itself.
Director Russell is not a good director of actors. He doesn't get the best out of them. Rufus Sewell can be very good if made to dig into himself and perform, here I felt he was just "mailing it in". Kim Basinger is wonderful when reigned in and not allowed to "vamp", here she over-emotes to a fault. The other actors seem to just throw their lines in as an afterthought and the director has left them there to rot.
The special effects are simplistic and not realistic enough to overcome the unintentional comedy of bad effects (try "Plan 9 from Outerspace" for a good laugh sometime). I just couldn't find myself really involved in the outcome of the movie, the climax was much too wooden and staged.
That being said, the concept is delicious. The battle between good and evil and the incarnated child who will lead us to salvation are great themes and are the best reason to see the movie. These alone save what could have been a magnificent movie. Too bad such a good story was put into the hands of such a hack director.
The Duellists (1977)
Historical Fiction at its Finest.
Based on a short-story by Joseph Conrad (author of Heart of Darkness), this story about the years-long episodic duel between two Napoleonic soldiers is probably one of the finest works of cinematography available today. Winner of the Palm D'or at Cannes the year it was released it boasts fine performances by many of the best stage actors of the British theatre. Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine as the protagonists turned in what was probably their finest performances and the almost-unknown Ridley Scott, in his first screen film project, made the name for himself with this movie which catapulted him to big-screen status and landed him the job of directing "Alien", his break-through film. I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in historical drama. The only problem with this film is that without a knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars and the history of Europe at the time, one can get lost in the plot.