Reviews

This movie is far worse than simply a bad movie, which you can laugh at. With it's illogical plot and inconsistent theme this movie insults your intelligence at every turn. With it's mind-numbing slow pace it will test your nerves.

How can Harry sit there at the end, playing his sax, when a murder has indeed taken place and with his cooperation. The adulteress and her lover weren't killed (like he suspected), but the wronged husband was offed. Does that not count ?. Where is the morality ?. Why isn't the good Catholic shown getting inside his bed and tumbling around in his sheets in agony ?. He did it when all he had was a hunch that murder might be taking place ?. Why doesn't he have a nervous breakdown, when his worst fears have now been realized ?. Hello ?.

It's a rare movie, where you end up despising the protagonist.

I don't blame Francis for putting together this muddled piece-of-$#@!. It must have been real good weed or acid.

Id Unplugged

This movie tries to make the case that a handful of middle mgmt miscreants in the Pentagon, manufactured and fed false intel about Iraq's abandoned WMD program to senior officials and literally duped the Pentagon, the State Dept and the White House... into going to war.

What nonsensical revisionist propaganda!

Anybody who has even a mild interest in current events would know that it was "W", Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of the Neo-Cons who orchestrated this illegal war and pushed it down the throats of the entire world. In private, Bush & Blair were putting the final touches on their war plans at Camp David (as Blair has admitted now), when in public they were talking about giving UN diplomacy a chance.

Starting wars on a ruse is nothing new for the USA. It's greed and lust for power has led it to crap all over the world. Hitler, Genghis Khan and others are rank amateurs in comparison.

If America were still land of the brave and country of laws, not people, then George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the team would be tried as war criminals and hung from the tallest flag pole in D.C. and this film would have the balls to lay the blame, right where it belongs, instead of giving it away from the Iraqi General's perspective:

"Your govt wanted to hear the lie Mr. Miller. They wanted Saddam out and they did exactly what they had to do. This is why you are here".

But I'll take whatever I can. Maybe movie makers in the future will develop cojones to tell it like it is, even if it makes us look ugly and barbaric.

If you want to see nearly two hours of the emaciated corpse of Christian Bale, dragging himself across the screen in one of the slowest, banal, revolving (note: I did not say evolving) and revolting plots, take a seat.

However, having made the mistake of watching this horror, I would not recommend this to anyone, except maybe a masochist. The movies that it's being compared to, were all unique and far better developed than this rehash.

This flick has no substance. At the end, you are left with a sinking feeling that you have just wasted two hours of your life, watching nothing memorable except, Jennifer Jason Leigh's breasts, which are beautiful. In fact they stole the show from the rest of the cast.

The 2 stars are for them.

Cartoons are typically targeted towards the younger audience. The impressionable minds, the sponges. So instead of making a movie which teaches that hard work, sustained commitment, discipline and patience ultimately pays off, here, we have the exact opposite. The team who has spent a lifetime preparing for a task is pushed aside in favor of a wholly unmotivated, ill-prepared, unqualified on all accounts "hero", who is chosen by destiny (which fairy tale could do without it ?) and conveyed through a turtle, who is about to kick the bucket himself.

In matter of two days, a panda who is so overweight that he literally cannot get up, and could (or should) keel over from a massive stroke or a heart-attack any minute, is sharpened into a Master Kung-Fu fighter through a program of --consuming chicken dumplings.

It's a frightening message for the younger generation: That unqualified and unprepared triumphs over the qualified and prepared, by goofing off. Panda has no inherent special powers in him. No gifts are bestowed upon him to make him special. He just becomes special because he believes he's special. Wow.

I will say that there is nothing visually wrong in the way this movie is put together. The animation, direction and voice overs are all first-rate. My beef is with the central premise of the movie, which is why, I feel, kids should not be exposed to it.

This is the best film I have seen in awhile. They are not making enough movies like this anymore. If you know bossy, know-it-all, patriarchal figureheads in families who begin losing it and drag the whole family into turmoil, stretching the fabric thin in all directions... this is the film to see it brilliantly laid out in rich hues.

The grieving father, spiraling into depression and dementia, slowly losing interest and touch with reality, his friends, colleagues and family. He is too proud, too scared, to let go of the past and embrace the new reality. After his wife, he thinks his loyalty lies with his work. Instead of cementing relations with his family, he sets about to publish the perfect memento to the past, a book on the Holocaust. When it's finished, nobody wants it. It's too expensive to buy, sell and keep on the shelves.

It's only when his most loyal and patient son, dies in the process of trying to bring him back to life, that he snaps out of his spell. People who are dear to him are passing away and he realizes that all he can do is to embrace 'today' and keep of it, what he can.

The movie is like a mirror. You get out of it, what you bring to it. If you are a feeling person, who is not sleep-walking through life, you will find this movie endlessly entertaining. Aside from the brilliant acting, the plot, screenplay and direction are all wonderfully woven together into a tapestry of moving art, depicting life.

I would've much appreciated if they had chosen real (hot looking) actors, with a good script to cover this subject matter. Hairy, bald and ugly sex --we can all do without. Add whiny, twangy, chauvinist southerners with control issues and you have a recipe for disaster of titanic proportions.

And at closing they tell you that Sara, after having been dumped by Calvin and losing her job as a teacher (after the movie outed her as a swinger), has a new boyfriend, but continues to see Calvin... the guy had a tiny little pecker, is she retarded, or what ?.

It's a Jerry Springer Show made out into a movie.

This is one of my fav movies. The last scene where he turns down the money from his publisher, which is akin to accepting a death sentence with his dwindling health, sums up the movie and the character of Brummell. He would accept a quick death, than compromise his principles. No matter that the man he was trying to shield, the plump prince, had so unceremoniously and unfairly shunned him. And after all he did for him.

Such is life. There is a prayer which goes, "Keep me safe from the evil of one, who I have favored". Because, it hurts a whole lot more when you get back-stabbed from them.

Most people on this board have no kind word for Brummell. Maybe, because they have been on the receiving end from somebody like that. A man with flair, elan, a quick wit and bold to boot. Such men do ruffle the feathers of the rest of us, make us look bad in comparison. But to not recognize their qualities is unfair. Some may also not appreciate the theme of a 'commoner' trying to mix with royalty. That's just a sad shame.

Brummell could have easily remained in the good graces of the prince, got his earlship, minted money and remain an insider, as long as plumpy was on the throne. But he threw it all away for pride 'n principle and even at death's door, he receives plumpy in a dignified manner and is overly kind and courteous to him.

You have to have character, to recognize it and cherish it, in this movie I guess. I would urge everyone with upright principle to watch this movie for an affirmation. :)