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Reviews
Gangs of New York (2002)
One of the worst films I have ever seen in the cinema.
Half an hour into watching this mess four people walked out. I really should have followed them. There's nothing much more to say, this film has absolutely nothing going for it. It is a disaster on celluloid.
To quote an email from a friend of mine:
"Daniel Day Lewis reminded me of Dick Dastardly. A sniggering dog in a flying helmet would have improved the film no end."
Die Another Day (2002)
The worst Bond since "Moonraker"
As a friend of mine said as we left the cinema, "Hollywood has stolen Bond". Of course Bond has always been part of Hollywood, but the franchise has always managed to retain some of its individuality. It never went completely over the top, apart from the "Star Wars" cash-in "Moonraker". That is until now.
Much has been made of how this film has broken all the records for product placement and how this has signified Bond "selling out". To be honest, apart from a few Sony Ericsson placements it mostly feels quite natural. Where Bond has really sold out is that all the subtlety has been removed and replaced by bang after explosion after stunt. The previous occasional quick humourous quips have been replaced by entire conversations where people try to outdo each other by the way of the tongue. The element of "possible reality", where everything has been far-fetched but not so far-fetched that there isn't the glimmer of possibility, has been thrown right out of the window just like it was with "Moonraker". I mean, a car with a Star Trek-style cloaking device?
Another element which brings the film down is the frankly appalling computer graphics. At times (for example, when Bond is surfing whilst escaping from the Icarus beam) the graphics are so poor they don't look much better than a videogame. Give me real stunts and a larger element of reality over this any day.
This Bond has just taken it too far. In trying to out-do every Bond for the anniversary it has successfully managed to avoid everything that made Bond great. Bond has been through revelations before, for example Timothy Dalton's reinvention of Bond as a tough guy after Roger Moore had pulled it down to the level of a poor comedy. Bond needs it again now, as the franchise has been dragged too far from its roots. It is no longer separate from the pretenders to the crown. It is trying to play the same game as the others - and if this film is anything to go by then it is losing.
Lilja 4-ever (2002)
Hugely Disappointing
"Lilja 4-Ever" has been eagerly anticipated in Moodysson's native Sweden after the critical acclaim that his previous two films have received. I cannot imagine that I am the only person who came out of it disappointed. On one hand we can be thankful that he has shunned the usual "feel-good" style of Swedish cinema (family is happy, something bad happens, everyone is down but ultimately turn things around) and presented something a lot darker, but on the other hand in doing this he has lost the essential elements of a good film.
The film lacks narrative and fails to evoke any emotions from the viewer beyond disgust. In an unexpected display of lazy film-making he resorts to extended scenes designed purely to nauseate the audience. There is no attempt to explore why things happen, he merely presents Lilja's situation again and again and again. The storyline, what little there is, feels unnecessarily contrived as Lilja falls from bad situation to bad situation to bad situation.
Ultimately the film feels as if it has been designed purely to start debate (or maybe just moral outrage) in the tabloid newspapers that always feel a need to be outraged about something. For me the film was just lazy. It takes no effort at all to make a film about prostitution that disgusts the viewer - a decent director can do that in his sleep - yet that is all Moodysson has managed to do.
Joan of Arc (1999)
So anti-English it borders on racism.
One of the biggest shocks I have ever had at the cinema was when I saw "Leon". I had seen the trailer and, frankly, thought it looked appalling. Gary Oldman's "I Love the calm before the storm" followed by some over the top weaponry made it look like the sort of film you'd expect to see Bruce Willis in. I eventually saw the film when bored one Sunday afternoon. It was one of the best films I have seen in my life.
"Jeanne d'Arc" is "Leon"'s polar opposite. A stylish, intruiging trailer for a disgrace of a film.
I'll ignore the historical inaccuracies. I'll ignore the needlessly gratuitous violence. I'll ignore Milla Jovovich's woefully inadequate acting skills. I'll even ignore the disgustingly inappropriate and historically inaccurate rape scene. For me, the most unbelievable aspect of the film was the differences between how the French and the English were protrayed.
Whereas the French were gallant, handsome, humorous and full of honour in battle, the English were protrayed as savages, ugly, stupid, dishonourable rapists with Noblemen (which in the film seems like a contradiction in terms)unable to mutter more than a few words without unleashing a stream of expletives (as opposed to the running joke where a single Frenchman is corrected everytime he uses one of the mildest swearwords available).
I left the cinema with a bad taste in my mouth. In the past I have forgiven Luc Besson for his films being seemingly more interested in style than minor things like plot and character development, but it will be many years before I will be able to forgive him for this.