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Reviews
Moon (2009)
Good Film, good build-up and feel, some little set-backs
I'm not going to add any more praise to this film, since that has been done often enough. I especially liked the build-up and the atmosphere. Definitely recommendable for people who generally enjoy sci-fi movies.
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Why don't I rate this film a perfect 10 - like so many others? 1. Some bits of the story leave you questioning the whole logic of the setting. Like the actual need for humans to be on the station, when they have to go through all that trouble to keep him "in his state". And wouldn't a one-year-contract be psychologically easier to bear? Would a nasty corporation programme a friendly A.I.? Etc. Okay, I will acknowledge that sci-fi always builds on sometimes far-fetched assumptions. Still, I don't like having too many simple questions unanswered.
2. There were a lot of quotes and references that you can't really understand, unless you know the history of sci-fi movies. I went with my girl-friend and she asked me why GERTY was being so helpful. Well, since she hadn't seen 2001 or Alien, she didn't see GERTY's behaviour in contrast to other (rather negative) examples of human interaction with A.I. As someone who's seen most of the classics, I was always thinking: "reminds me of Solaris", "he's behaving like HAL", or "a corporate rescue mission? Like in Alien3?".
I thought, sometimes the film-makers were too focused on playing with references than laying out their own plot.
3. The ending was a bit too blunt. Suddenly we hear news headlines about shares dropping and accusations of him being an illegal alien. Why? My last thoughts were: "Oh, so this movie is actually about finances and politics?" That angle was completely unnecessary. The psychology behind being an expendable clone was mind-boggling enough. The rest can easily be left up to the minds of the audiences.
Still, a good movie. 7/10
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Sorry, it just didn't do it for me ...
I must admit that I never finished it. I stopped after the scene with Maggie paralized and telling Frankie she wanted to die. It just didn't make sense. And I'm not going to give this flick another chance - no matter how highly it is praised.
Firstly, boxing is not my thing. Secondly, when the going gets rough, the girl gives up? That's stupid. Thirdly, the story is so uninspiring and predictable. Even I could have come up with it. And last but not least, I had developed absolutely no sympathy with any of the characters.
I would have given it a 3-4 out of 10, but for all the hype and the Oscar nominations it has received, I just can't give this movie any credit.
Der Untergang (2004)
I finally saw it ...
Having been away from the civilised world for two years, I finally moved to a town that has 'Der Untergang' on DVD. And yesterday I finally got to see it.
I've only read the last 50 comments, but judging from them I would say that almost everything has already been mentioned. Scary and unbelievable. Amazing performances, a grand depiction of one of the most grotesque moments in history.
What struck me the most was how out of touch with reality the inner circle of power had become. Or maybe had they always been lost in their visions and ideologies? That is a chilling point.
When Hitler says that the shelling of Berlin will aid him, because it will speed up the construction of his monumental capital Germania, when he orders armies to attack that virtually do not even exist anymore, we realise how ignorant Germans had been. Only in the end did many of them wake up to see through the lies and promises. Many never lived that long.
One thing that got stuck in my mind was the scene of the last SS battalion being encircled by the Russians. Even though blood is not commonplace in the movie, I seemed to get used to being surrounded by death: boys, girls, soldiers, deserters, civilians, generals, politicians, Adolf and Eva, the Goebbels family, dying by the minute. When the two SS officers blow their brains out, I didn't even blink. After all we had see, their suicide was just trivial.
I don't know why but that just grips me. In the beginning of the film, I was thinking about how hard it is to commit suicide. When the last two officers took their lives without hesitating, I knew that I would have readily done the same in the circumstances. Like Goebbels, Hitler and the Reich had been the essence of their lives. And like Goebbels, suicide was the only option.
Scary.
Faith Like Potatoes (2006)
I had to leave half way through ...
I must admit that I only saw about half of the movie. But that was enough. What started out as a somewhat dull story about a farmer and his family relocating to South Africa and starting over from scratch, suddenly turned into bible class.
We see a family being torn apart by frustration and failures with the man of the house driven to the brink of reason. Then one day, they are invited to church where Angus has a nervous breakdown and embraces Jesus. From then on, suddenly everything starts to work out. Now we see Angus lying around in the cornfields. We see him summoning rain during a runaway bushfire ....
... and when he starts resurrecting the dead, I just thought it was enough.
To put it frankly: If you are not a Christian and don't want to become one, it's a waste of time and money.
End of story.
Dead Man (1995)
So damn important
For me this is the most important movie of all times.
It's deep, dark, morbid and in that sense like no other movie I know of. The air is mystical, the mood is apocalyptic.
If you're looking for a gripping spiritual/philosophical cinematic experience, you've found it. If you want entertainment, you'd better stay away.
(10/10)