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Reviews34
Stroheim-3's rating
For months I've been hearing that some Catholic League is protesting Kevin Smith's DOGMA for its sacrilegious quality; of course these people have not seen it. What else is new?
The fact remains that it is neither sacrilegious nor anti-Christianity - it is actually Smith's journey towards spiritual enlightenment. It is his justification of religion; he manages to find God in the modern world. And he does this brilliantly. Unfortunately, this is all he does well.
The script was filled with cheesy-one liners that seem to come from a novice's screenplay. Many of the jokes are forced. Then again some of them are absolutely hilarious, but these are few and far between. Moreover, the film is boring. The middle hour and twenty minutes suck. I hated being forced to listen to poorly written discourse about religion and the dumb jokes about what really happened in the Bible.
Plot holes? Yes I'll have some. Maybe it was the editing; I don't know, but people just appeared out of nowhere and stuff happened that wasn't followed up upon. For example, Azrael established a base of operations and then didn't do anything with it. Why?
The acting wasn't fabulous either. Jason Lee was overly dramatic in his role, Chris Rock played himself, and Jason Mewes seemed drastically out of his element. Even Alan Rickman seemed to be struggling.
Again some of it was hilarious, and the message was good. That was it. In a word: BOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooring!!!
The fact remains that it is neither sacrilegious nor anti-Christianity - it is actually Smith's journey towards spiritual enlightenment. It is his justification of religion; he manages to find God in the modern world. And he does this brilliantly. Unfortunately, this is all he does well.
The script was filled with cheesy-one liners that seem to come from a novice's screenplay. Many of the jokes are forced. Then again some of them are absolutely hilarious, but these are few and far between. Moreover, the film is boring. The middle hour and twenty minutes suck. I hated being forced to listen to poorly written discourse about religion and the dumb jokes about what really happened in the Bible.
Plot holes? Yes I'll have some. Maybe it was the editing; I don't know, but people just appeared out of nowhere and stuff happened that wasn't followed up upon. For example, Azrael established a base of operations and then didn't do anything with it. Why?
The acting wasn't fabulous either. Jason Lee was overly dramatic in his role, Chris Rock played himself, and Jason Mewes seemed drastically out of his element. Even Alan Rickman seemed to be struggling.
Again some of it was hilarious, and the message was good. That was it. In a word: BOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooring!!!
I need to say this: THIS MOVIE IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! Sure it starts off slowly, but the fact of the matter is the film is a great story of a family and the alienation associated with aging. This is the kind of movie that will make you reflect upon your own family and how you treat them.
I had never seen an Ozu film before, but now I feel as if I must see them all. His use of cinematic space is incredible. He breaks all sorts of conventions with his cinematography such as violating the axis of action. This gives the viewer the sense of a large, open, unrestricted world.
Going with this realism, the characters seem real; not for a moment did I see the people on the screen as actors. They were the family, and you as the viewer feels what they feel. Part of this comes from the use of head-on-shots such that the characters are speaking TO you.
It is a fantastic, moving piece of work and arguably one of the best films ever made.
I had never seen an Ozu film before, but now I feel as if I must see them all. His use of cinematic space is incredible. He breaks all sorts of conventions with his cinematography such as violating the axis of action. This gives the viewer the sense of a large, open, unrestricted world.
Going with this realism, the characters seem real; not for a moment did I see the people on the screen as actors. They were the family, and you as the viewer feels what they feel. Part of this comes from the use of head-on-shots such that the characters are speaking TO you.
It is a fantastic, moving piece of work and arguably one of the best films ever made.
Murnau's Faust is awesome. His use of special effects was great in its day and still holds up pretty well for today's standards. I especially liked Mephisto looming over the village as well as his doubling as he is stabbed.
The lighting is fantastic; each frame can tell its own story. As part of the German Expressionist movement, every emotion, every thought is transferred onto the screen. The agony of Gretchen, the confusion and frustration of Faust, and the sheer evil of Mephisto are always apparent.
The film is just plain great from the classic story through the characterizations and special effects. It's one of the greats.
The lighting is fantastic; each frame can tell its own story. As part of the German Expressionist movement, every emotion, every thought is transferred onto the screen. The agony of Gretchen, the confusion and frustration of Faust, and the sheer evil of Mephisto are always apparent.
The film is just plain great from the classic story through the characterizations and special effects. It's one of the greats.