ruimsl Reviews

The Happiest Guy in the World (2018)

A bit of a let down

[4/10 · 13 August 2018]

I was hopping in getting a better insight about the man who choose to live in cruise ships about twenty years ago. Although with an interesting subject, this doc fails as it doesn't tell us anything about the man an the reasons for his unusual choise.

It could have been just be a 10 second foot note on the news, that the amount of insight on the subject was the same.

This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

Great family comedy

[8/10 · 11 January 2016]

I didn't know about this movie until a few days ago when I saw a trailer of it on TV, and it caught my attention.

The actors were fairly good at start, but what really caught my eye was the story. I especially like comedy/drama about family inter- relations.

So I decide to give it a chance, and I didn't regret it.

This is a very well-constructed and modern comedy about a dysfunctional family that grew apart and despite that, they all love each other very much (in their particular way).

The script is good. A death in the family brings about the opportunity to reconnect the family, to chase away old ghosts, in a "forced" tell all exercise, all wrapped in by the mourning ceremony of Shiva.

The performances are very good, and I especially liked Jane Fonda (she rules completely), Tina Fey and Jason Bateman. They all are no strangers to this kind of movie and we can see why.

The director already has some comedies under his belt (Night at the Museum 1 and 2 as well as the reboot of the Pink Panther) making this a very efficient exercise of movie watching.

Summing it up I enjoyed this movie very much. It is funny, and a bit of a kicker in family ties so just my kind of movie.

We should always thing about the best thing/choice for us but we can't forget those who love us. Maybe they can help.

Balas & Bolinhos (2001)

Bad but worthwhile

[2/10 · 29 April 2015]

This movie is a true expression of amateur filmography that we can see in every aspect of the picture.

From the actors that are all amateurs, to the technical staff which are well intentioned persons that curiously ended up making a movie.

The script is basic, and exploits the Portuguese stereotypes of the small time burglars, in a gang of four, with narrow minded plans taken to the extreme.

The story of a disbanded gang of four intriguing characters, that when their leader gets out of jail after a 5 year stretch, comes up with a brilliant plan, that will take them all to retire in Brasil, by robbing a gas station.

This fab four gang is made of a drug dealer – Rato, an unemployed guy that liked to steal from his boss – Culatra, a drunk and dope-head – Bino, and the leader of the pack, the man with all the solutions – Tone.

This is a relatively bad movie with poor quality but is worth seeing because it represents the willpower of a group of guys that really wanted to make a movie, with very little means.

It is another great example of "where there's a will there's a way".

Good on you guys. We need people like them in the Portuguese movies.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Closing of the cycle

[9/10 · 3 April 2015]

In another awesome superhero movie, we see the less dark and gloomy Gotham, with the villain Bane rounding up the support of the people of Gotham against their rulers and usual heroes.

The truth about Harvey Dent is exposed and the people realize that they have been living by a great lie, where Dent was a hero and not the foe Two-Face.

This makes the people to believe in the next best thing which at the time is the alleged socialist Bane. Here we can see several links to the story of the first movie, recalling Duncan of the league of justice, and their objective for Gotham.

There is also a very interesting part of the story regarding his next of kin ………..

A new and refreshed Catwoman also appears – Anne Hathaway, which personally I think is very competent but I still prefer Michelle Pfeiffer.

It's a very well composed ending of the cycle in a winner formula for a great superhero movie.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Great, just great action

[9/10 · 3 April 2015]

The first sequel of this new installment of the Batman puts his face to face with the Joker – the magnificent Heath Ledger.

We can also see the transformation of Harvey Dent in Two-Face, in a final tragic twist to the story.

This movie is a lithe weaker than the first, but also great, with a combination of great actors and a brilliant director (the same as in the first movie), result in a great superhero movie.

We can see the growing importance of Commissioner Gordon, playing a pivot role between Batman and Harvey, in a quest for justice in Gotham.

The joker is probably the best Batman villain so far, comparable to Jack Nicholson's Joker from the 1989's Batman.

Great, just great action/superhero movie.

Batman Begins (2005)

Where is the sequel ....

[9/10 · 2 April 2015]

This is the new incarnation of the Batman saga, a reboot of the series as the movie geeks like to call it.

Christian Bale is the new and revisited once more Bruce Wayne, in a search to coping with the loss of both parents, and seeking and learning special talents to help him in the seek for justice (or is it revenge), by the teach full hand of Ras Al Gul.

The excellence of Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan made this a great reboot for all the hard core Batman fans.

Here we can see the growth of Batman, as well as his new gadgets – my favorites are the tumbler and the special metamorphic cape, with a special twist of company management wars.

The Scarecrow, played by Cillian Murphy, is an excellent villain able to give Batman a run for his money.

This movie makes us, comic fans, craving for the sequel.

The Humbling (2014)

Great Al Pacino

[7/10 · 2 April 2015]

When the mind starts to play tricks with us, consequence of the aging process, presenting new difficulties in our ordinary and daily tasks it is very hard to understand and specially to accept.

An aging actor begins to have memory lapses which become a serious problem, first present to us when he passes out on stage.

With our senses altering we begin to cling to all things that make us feel good, replacing the bad feeling of possibly failure, like, in this movie, a young women, lesbian (or not) or bisexual (or not) with dubious motivations.

Al Pacino plays the aging actor in a brilliant performance, supported by great actors.

It's a movie off the beaten path, but altogether similar to Birdman, worthwhile watching due to the emotions it portrays, and the truthfulness the characters are immerse by the actors.

The attempt to show others, as well as ourselves, that we can still do the some things, the we still got it can sometimes be tragic.

This is a great movie ad it is always good to see Al Pacino.

Rango (2011)

Excellent

[8/10 · 2 April 2015]

I had some reserves about this movie, despite all the awards, maybe just because it is an animated picture with reptiles.

This being said, I decided to watch it and I don't regret it. The 3D animation is excellent in a story adapted from the old western movies a modern spin.

The water is the money, and also the source of life, in a close allegory for modern days in a very intelligent way.

In the midst of it all, an outsider comes to save the day, and every one (maybe except the underground critters ….he! he!). In order to do so he will have to discover his inner strength as well as the truth in his motivation.

It uses as reference the old Clint Eastwood westerns and Star Wars saga, among several others, and voice stars like Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher and Ned Beaty, and the outcome is very effective on drawing in the kids as well as the grown-ups, in an exercise in animation excellence.

Personally I especially liker the four howls as great and funny storytellers.

Excellent.

Forrest Gump (1994)

It's an excellent movie in every way

[8/10 · 2 April 2015]

A long overdue movie experience for me.

This is a great movie with another remarkable interpretation by Tom Hanks.

He IS the movie.

It's like a fairy tale where we can see that in spite of our shortcomings, we can always be great or a part of something great (even if we can't understand it…).

It is also a love story of a man chasing after his true love his entire life. On his route he finds friendship, fortune and the acknowledgment of his abilities by his friends (and not only those).

In the end, without knowing it, he shows true compassion for his loved one, saving her. But in his mind she is saving him, like she always did throughout his life.

It's an excellent movie in every way.

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Not very interesting

[5/10 · 23 March 2015]

This wasn't a movie that I would be interested but, as my wife had read all the books and wanted to see the movie I decided to go along and watch the movie with her.

One way or the other I wanted to see if all the media hype around this movie was justified or not. The lead actors weren't known or interesting to me, so I wasn't expecting some off the wall interpretations.

The story plays around a young woman that replaces her friend in an interview of a young wealthy business man, and is attracted by his charm and wits, as he is to her.

The next almost two hours of movie we can see their relationship growing, into his kinky sexual preferences that she sometimes doesn't understand, trying to make him love her the "normal way", without physical pain. Which she only endures because he is rich, otherwise this would be called sexual harassment.

This said, the story is kind of flat, monotonous, and doesn't prove or show all the explicit sex the media is trying to sell to us. People that I talked to that read the books said that the movie doesn't show 1/10 of the sexuality of the original story – rating oblige??!!. The interpretations seam competent com a slight relevance to Dakota Johnson over Jamie Dornan. For someone that didn't read the books, it seemed like a competent movie but not very interesting and It was made clearly to make dividends on the popularity of the books.

Star Trek: Generations (1994)

It's not the best but the essentials are there.

[7/10 · 19 March 2015]

I have always been a fan of sci-fi movies, specially the Star Trek and Star Wars universes.

Hence, I noted that I was missing a few movies of the Star Trek saga, namely those with captain Jean Luc Picard.

The movie Star Trek Generations makes the connection between two different eras: James Tiberius Kirk and Jean Luc Picard – played by the always excellent William Shatner and Sir Patrick Stewart.

We can see that the actor's age is an important factor and many of the original cast did not accept being a part of this new project, ending up being replaced by second line characters and the script being adjusted to that fact.

Altogether it's an interesting movie, which the fans will always like but, as we say in Portugal "não é a mesma coisa" (it's not the same thing).

The past history of the Enterprise falls deep into Kirk's character and William Shatner itself.

It's an interesting sci-fi movie, where the irreprehensive Sir Patrick Stewart plays captain Jean Luc Picard, with James Kirk, opposite to a very competent bad guy - Soran, played by Malcom McDowell (will never forget "A Clockwork Orange"), remembering Spocks's half-brother Sybok, in a quest to final the ultimate wellbeing.

It's a worthwhile for the fans, it makes the link between the original Star Trek and Generations, but, for some reason, the series reboot was made with the original characters (different cast of course), and the special guest star Leonard Nimoy.

It's not the best Star Trek, but the essentials are there.

Jarhead (2005)

Great Iraqi War Picture

[7/10 · 18 March 2015]

Jarhead is a great movie by a great director Sam Mendes.

I am not a huge fan of war movies, not as I was at least. But this movie gives us the view of the soldiers on standby immediately before engaging the enemy.

In this particular case, the standby troops before the first Iraqi war. All the before action anxiety and bottled up testosterone is portrayed in a very realistic manner, with a superb performance by Jake Gyllenhaal.

The trio made by Jake, Peter Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx elevate the movie letting us see the hardships of soldiers constrained by politics.

It is a very good war movie, in another very good example of Sam Mendes's work.

The Artist (I) (2011)

Silent vs Sound

[8/10 · 12 March 2015]

This movie is a masterpiece by itself portraying a very critical time for movies and the American society – The end of silent movies and the market crash of 1929 hence the beginning of the Great Depression.

Silent movies were very big in those days but the arrival of sound posed some complicated challenges to the actors. The film bosses and the public wanted for something new and silent movies were abandoned in a dramatic way.

Silent movie actors didn't have to memorize lines, they "just" had to mimic the feelings of the script by gestures and faces. This by itself wasn't easy but sound was another matter. Besides script memorizing they had to use their voices, which in some cases were not the best solutions for the movie.

The image of the actor and its expressions were not enough anymore. This meant that the grand majority of the silent movie actor weren't able to make the transition between silent and sound. And this is the story of George Valentin in a great performance by Jean Dujardin, assisted brilliantly by the always trying to help Peppy Miller – Berenice Bejo.

In a time of sound, image, CGI, green screens, and all the movie trickery that we grow accustomed to, this is a breath of fresh air. It helps us, movie lovers, to appreciate good cinema, the classics.

It is important to look forward in a quest for new and innovative solutions, different ways to tell a story, but in order to do so with a consistent base of knowledge, we should not forget the classics, and this is a perfect and modern representation of a classic.

We should know the past in order to understand the future.

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Very good modern western

[7/10 · 10 March 2015]

The name of the movie only starts to make sense past mid-point of the movie. Here we can see two men battling in a quest for revenge (a little misplaced, or not ?!?), after the end of the American Civil War.

An allegory between heaven and hell – the beginning and the end of the movie, com be seen in the sets, portrayed by high winterly mountains and a scorching desert where the action unravels.

In between, the hunter is losing its men, either by the hand or the hunted, or by greed - the perspective of easer money that the quest at hand. The last of the sidekicks, in a very good performance by Michael Wincott, get taken out by the ugly face the revenge at a hands grasp.

We can see two great actors – Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson, portraying two soldiers, hardened by war and hardship, making their way into an ending which turns out to be a little weak, where we can see that the men aren't so hardened. Cowboys and soldiers also have good and just hearts.

A final note to Angelica Houston playing a saleswoman, in the middle of the desert (??!!) trading with both men the means to make the revenge possible with justice (equal rights). Is she a representation for the devil itself? I think so ..., in a little twisted and just way.

It's a very good movie with great landscapes and very worthwhile example of the long lost western.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

A good movie with great interpretations

[7/10 · 5 March 2015]

The story of a drifter working on a by the road dinner, and the owner's wife, disenchanted with her marriage sets upon herself to seduce the drifter in the hopes of a more satisfying relationship.

This is the base of the script, in which Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson shine in their performances bringing different dimensions to their characters and, in true, bringing them to life.

Frank Chambers (Jack Nicholson) is a bored drifter, with some jail time under his belt not looking for anything in particular. He gets enchanted by Cora (Jessica Lange) and ends up doing everything for them to be together.

I think Jack Nicholson is an outstanding performer and it shows here some glimpses of what he will put in The Shining later on.

I also particularly liked John P. Ryan in the small supporting role of Kennedy where we can see in him the double-stabbing typical that he will show in later roles.

All in all it is a good movie, but I don't consider it as being erotic. Maybe for 1980's standards, but even so I doubt it.

The Homesman (2014)

A worthwhile experience

[8/10 · 4 March 2015]

The Homesman represents a comeback of a movie genre, long forgotten by the public and hence the studios (or is it the other way around ??!!) – the western.

In this case, out the ordinary duplicity: good guy vs bad guy, we have a story that portrays the difficulties of the relationships of the first settlers of the remote America, namely the women.

Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank embark on a perilous journey protecting 3 women gone crazy to a safe destination where they can be treated.

On the way we there we are shown the difficulties in the relationship between an unmarried woman with a lone ex-soldier, that just what's to be left alone.

It is very interesting to see the changes that traumatizing circumstances make in one's was of thinking.

Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank are excellent actors and the movie is also enriched by some all-star cameos by John Lithgow, William Fitchner and Meryl Steep.

For those who like westerns it's a worthwhile experience.

The Master (2012)

Another good movie by P. T. Anderson

[7/10 · 4 March 2015]

It's a strange and unusual movie portraying the difficulties that ex-soldiers have in relations with the everyday life after the end of the war.

In situations of mind confusion and unrest, they are seduced by the strong minded new cult leaders in a quest for mind rest.

This is what happened to Freedie Quell (Joaquim Pheonix), an ex-soldier with an old and unresolved love, with drinking and violence problems.

He gets sucked in by the very persuasive Lancaster Dod (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and with time becoming his right hand man.

The performances of both actors are extremely good, well worth the Oscars. Amy Addams is also very good as the Master's wife.

It's another good movie by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

A Must See

[8/10 · 4 March 2015]

It's a great movie, with a scenic ensemble very coherent and beautiful (a Portuguese was part of the art team) and altogether a very good exercise in visual experiments, away from the very current CGI.

I believe it is a must see.

Ralph Fiennes plays a very interesting hotel manager, trying to satisfy its guest's every needs, making them feel as a part of family. The Grand Budapest Hotel's family. Several Oscar award winners complete the roster with quality and efficiency.

I particularly liked Mathieu Amalric, as the mysterious and helpful Serge X., and the small part of Léa Sedoux, the newest bond girl.

The 2015 Oscars were well awarded in this case.

7 Pecados Rurais (2013)

Don't Waste your time

[2/10 · 25 February 2015]

I am a big supporter of Portuguese movies so I try to see as much as I can. This was one of the most seen Portuguese movies of 2013 so I was curious.

This is a movie adaptation of a TV show called TeleRural which is a caricature of some Portuguese stereotypes taken to the extreme. Personally I can't say I was disappointed because I already knew the type of humor depicted here.

It is a waste of time. It's a bad and very plain story, with a very particular type of acting that I don't enjoy. The type of humor is very one dimensional, sex based and nothing else. The script is weak to say the least, the actors don't shine (how could they), all in all it is a very amateurish experience.

A waste of time and resources.

Taken 3 (2014)

A Little Disappointing

[6/10 · 2 February 2015]

The story of Brian Mills comes full circle. But is he finished? As a movie franchise I believe it is worn out. This movie although packed with action, fights and shooting, is a little worse than the last, which was already worse than the first.

I like Liam Neeson as an action actor because he is a little different than the usual suspects, but I hope Luc Besson doesn't make this another Transporter. I had a lot of expectations regarding this movie but I was a little disappointed but the story which tends to be predictable.

Forest Whitaker is always a good addition to the group, making it a little better, but even he – the ever suspicious FBI detective, tend to just follow Liam's character as he moves the script around.

It is a good action movie but don't get your hopes up. It won't last in your memory.