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The Butcher's Wife (1991)
A Sweet film
I thoroughly despise Demi Moore. She tries for sweet and mostly misses. Thank you supporting cast. She cannot successfully do a southern accent. She is horrid! We have to depend on everyone else. I kept thinking Darryl Hannah. Its 5:30 am on time change weekend! Help. Anyway, watch the film, ajnd think Darryl Hannah, it'll work.
Anne (2017)
They should have called it Anne of Pink Rain Gutters
Should have called it Anne of Pink Rain Gutters. I'm always hesitant about new versions of this story, since the Megan Follows version is the ultimate. This one has thrown away Lucy Maude Montgomery 's story. Martthew was never suicidal! He was a wonderful loving man, he loved Anne, he loved green gables, and would never have thrown it away. Anne and Gilbert had a wonderful angry relationship. What fun to watch! These people should have written their own books, and filmed them and left poor miss montgomery alone!!!
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
2nd Rate Film...
A second rate film, directed by a third rate director does not bode well for bringing this magically staged musical to the screen. I saw three major problems here. 1.) The director - everything is so overblown, you lose the story. 2.) The phantom is a miscreant. There's just no liking him - the charm that Michael Crawford brought to this part seems to have been totally lost in the baroque, bombastic business. Where was Hal Prince when you needed him? That brings me to my third complaint. 3.) Voguing? Really! Who choreographed this muddled monstrosity? Madonna? The masquerade ball that was so magnificent and inventive on stage, here appears to be an excuse to burlesque Baz Luhrmann.
Stop this man, before he directs again!
To their credit Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Minnie Driver, Jennifer Ellison all do very credible job. Emmy Rossum's voice is quite lovely.
All-in-all, this film is every bit as good as the 1943 Claude Rains version. That should tell you something.
The Libertine (2004)
Do You Like Me Now?... Yes, though I didn't mean to...
John Wilmot was a complex, brilliant man. Having read about him, and having read his poetry, I was not certain a film about him could be done that portrayed those points in any meaningful way. The Libertine shows Wilmot for what he was, a man of many personalities, interests, and indulgences.
When the story begins, after a marvelous prologue warning the audience not to like him, Wilmot is for the most part still well. He returns after once again being banned from his precious city, having missed all of the good plays. You will discover later just how important a play is to him. He carouses with his friends, coming up with excellent, extemporaneous lines of verse at their insistence.
The heart of the film is struck when he enters the theater and witnesses the dismal failure of a newcomer to the stage. He sees in this woman a potential for taking the theater in an exciting new direction of realism and becomes determined to work with her, to have her become the diamond in the crown of London's theater.
At the same event, the King welcomes Wilmot back and gives him a service to perform. It is quite apparent that Wilmot has no love for the King nor his assigned task. How little regard the Earl has for said King and task is the other major thread of the story. Much of The Libertine is spent in taking us along with the Earl as he proves his wit is far exceeds the determination of the monarch to manipulate.
All the while, the Earl himself is dying. He has lived his life in his own fashion, always exceeding in every instance. Disgrace does not deter him; banishment does not deter him. To live is to go too far, and that is Wilmot's rule.
The characters surrounding Wilmot are engrossing. From the servant, Allcock (who does his best to prove his is all-cock) to the favored whore to the less than enthusiastic actor who turns down the offered role, everyone is either there to point the way to overindulgence or to run from it. Banned yet again from London, Wilmot shows us his own expertise as actor as he turns quack physician Dr. Bendo. The good doctor's cures are embodied by urine and fornication.
Finally Bendo is exposed to be none other than Rochester and brought back yet again to be told by the King that to be ignored is the only solution. Wilmot is returned to his country home to die. He flails at death, and in a masterful scene shows us that of which he is made. He drags his useless body, made up face, and false nose into the House of Lords on crutches. He offers a speech to save the line of succession that finally exposes what he could have been all along. You see at last fully what his talents were and how he has wasted them on his life of surfeit.
And finally you see him die. He has taken the short journey from brilliant, scurrilous profligate to corpse. He accepts the angels dancing on pin which he's always fought. Watching, you long for him to be young and well again to continue his journey.
While the film I saw was a work-in-progress, you could see a masterful story there. A little work on the soundtrack, a snip here or there of footage and this will be a film everyone will want to see and discuss.
The performances are magnificent. Johnny Depp has never played a role like this before, and you will be awe struck by his ability. John Malkovitch is stately and restrained. Samantha Morton does not let you forget that her purpose is to succeed upon the stage, and not in the bedroom. The music seems strange at first, then insinuates itself into the piece until nothing else would serve.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Was it worth the wait?
I must say, after TFOTR, I was truly excited to see the next installment. And, like many others before me here have said, it was a disapointment. Farimir made cruel. Treebeard made hasty. Saruman and Wormtongue's role made much less visable. No Huorns. No Grisnak. No thrown palintir. What's going on here?
Yes, it is Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, no longer Tolkien's. That fact has made me very sad. And where I saw the first film numerous times, this I've seen twice - can not recommend it to anyone - and can see it no more. It is a shame that a project so well started, could not be continued.
Perhaps Peter Jackson could not find enough in the 2nd book to hold his interest, so he made up his own story. It's not enough that the story truly belongs to Aragorn - but we have to be hit over the head, repeatedly, to let us know Aragorn is the hero. It's not enough for Frodo to struggle admirably. He has to be turned to "the dark side". It's not enough for Gollum to be villaneous. He has to be made the sympathetic character.
If this is how the third film is going to be treated, I think that seeing it one time may be more than too much!
Blood Work (2002)
Poor Michael Connelly
I came to this film as a fan of Michael Connelly. What a mistake. For those of you saying the reader should be happy about this film, think again. Why use a novel if you are not going to "use the novel". I'll think twice before I take the chance to see a film based on a novel again.
Isn't it time for Clint to hang up the magnum and actually retire?
Infinity (1996)
The early life of physicist Richard Feynman
Beautifully directed & cinematically stunning, the story revolved around a real individual who is involved in the Manhattan Project. The story - often faulted for the characters not behaving 'realistically' - follow quite faithfully the characters of Richard Feynman & his wife, the impact of the Manhattan Project on them, and her early death on him. Beautifully photographed. Worth watching for the evening desert scenes alone!