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Reviews
My Fair Lady (1964)
It's an Audrey Hepburn movie, of course it's excellent!
This is a great movie, and one of the last great film musicals. Audrey Hepburn was as always charming and enchanting. Rex Harrison made the role of Henri Higgins his and his alone. My only criticism is that the ending could have provided more of a closure. The songs will be stuck in your head long after you finish watching the movie.
Planet of the Apes (2001)
This movie with great potential was ruined by the ending and lack of development of characters...
First of all, this movie is not as bad as a lot of the reviews make it out to be. Second, it didn't bore me and I was actually pretty content with the film until the last 10 min.
SPOILER**** When the chimp landed on the planet during the "big final battle" I just knew that this film was spiraling down, and in my opinion it did.
Mostly everyone knows the story of this movie regardless if they've seen it or not. It's about a human pilot Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) who crash lands on a planet ruled by apes a few thousand years in the future and tries to escape because the living conditions of humans there are very poor due to the tyranny of the apes. This simple plot I think would have made for a good movie. Also, I'd like to mention that I haven't seen the original Planet of the Apes so I'm making no comparison. However, what ruined this movie was the fact that there were too many plot holes. A big part about enjoying a movie is to understand the story and when a movie is presented with a plot-holed story-line, you'll be spending a lot of time wondering instead of letting yourself enjoy the film.
Anyway, the plot summary seems very simple, yet the movie is cluttered with so many different things going on. This proves to be a big obstacle for portraying the development of the characters. This was unfortunate because I believed that the characters were worth relating to, especially Daena (Estella Warren). Actually, now that I think of it, she had about 5 lines in the film, other than that all she had to do was pose, and by the time of her last scene, I still didn't know her name.
Another thing that bothered me about the film was the somewhat love-triangle between Leo, Ari, and Daena. Throughout the movie, it was so obvious that a romance between Leo and Daena would've worked well, but they didn't even have a conversation together. As for putting Ari in this equation it was just a bad idea because why would Leo even give Ari a second thought as a love interest when he has the HUMAN Daena right in front of him. It was clear from the beginning that Daena was smitten with Leo, yet he doesn't even notice because he's too busy with trying to get off the planet which is understandable, but I think it would have been good for the film if Leo and Daena had connected emotionally. First of all, Estella Warren who I think has enormous potential would have had a better role. She could have been sort of the woman behind the great man, helping him believe in himself and just being there for him. They really wasted the character of Daena in my opinion. It's also unfair for others to criticize Estella Warren's acting, I mean how much better could she have been with the script she was given?
Thade, annoyed me after a while because he sneered and growled too much. However, overall I didn't think Tim Roth did such a bad job.
I've mentioned how Daena's character was wasted, well actually all the human characters weren't much for the plot. Karubi, Daena's father had absolutely no relevence to the film. Birn (Luke Eberl the boy) was a waste of screen space, and then they try to make him important during the end of the film, but that falls through because his character didn't develop just like everyone else.
SPOILER*** Attar's (Michael Clarke Duncan) conversion at the end of the film was also unbelievable. It's also hard to believe that when Thade gets stuck in the ship and starts shooting off his gun, that he didn't get hit at all even though there were like 7 bullets ricocheing off the tiny room at the same time.
Finally, the ending. A movie's ending can make it or break it. This movie's ending broke it. It left far too many questions unanswered, but not only that, it didn't make any sense AT ALL! I have a feeling that the movie makers only put this ending in so that people will hear through word of mouth about this twist ending and make them want to see it. It's nothing but a money making sham which unfortunately is working. It leaves room for so many different types of sequels, what bothers me is that it doesn't seem to leave room for most of the characters to return for the sequel (eg. Daena, Ari...).
Well, this movie was a feast for the eyes, it's visually a masterpiece, but unfortunately visuals aren't enough to make a great movie, a story and characters one can relate to are still the key and unfortunately this movie lacked this. It's definitely a movie worth a look at, just not at the price of today's cinema admission.
Ruthless People (1986)
Great FUN!!!
This movie wasn't a masterpiece or anything. However, it was just simply great fun! Danny DeVito with all his comedic talent really carried this film. Also, all the other cast members contributed well by playing their roles all fittingly. If you need a laugh, definitely pick up this movie!
My Sergei (1998)
more heartbreaking than any fictional movie
The docudrama My Sergei was a very honest portrayal of the 2-time olympic gold medallist Sergei Grinkov and his life with his wife and skating partner Ekaterina Gordeeva. It contains footage of most of the major skating competitions that he was involved in. However, it wasn't the skating that made My Sergei so memorable. It was the storybook life he led and its tragic ending which was incorporated in the film so well. If you have a heart, then there's no way this film won't make you cry. Definitely worth your time.