Change Your Image
In-Search-of_Truth
Reviews
The Paradine Case (1947)
It's Just not Worth It.
Pros: The cinematography is starkly beautiful at times, using light and shadow for story telling like a film noir does.
Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan, give incredible and believable performances. They look and speak their parts perfectly.
Charles Laughton as always was also very well casted.
Cons: The story is incredible melodramatic and brushes over infidelity very lightly and with irritating indifference to it's moral corruption. Leading to an outdated, condensing, and generally disagreeable climax.
Gregory Peck and Ann Todd were terribly cast. The clunky dialog and badly formed storyline of the relationship between the leads is magnified by the poor quality chemistry between the couple throughout the film.
Even stand allow they tend to deliver their lines like they are reading off the page of script.
One can't help but feel something better could have been made with more fitting leads.
The story even to a lover of court room dramas will most likely come off as redundant, slow going, and boring, with constant legal missteps and silly unrealistic courtroom mistakes abounding.
The editing did the film no favors.
Poltergeist (1982)
One of the Worse Horror Movies I have ever Seen.
This movie is so popular and talked about I really wanted to see it, particularly because horror is one of my two favorite genre's of film. I've seen hundreds of horror movies.
My feelings for it can be summed up in one statement really. I saw one scene of effects in a clip years ago, loved it, and from then on I wanted to see whatever movie it was in. Halfway through this movie the scene came up and my first thought was, "Darn it. Really? It's in this movie?"
Pros:
Most of the negative reviews point out the poor effects or a lack of scariness. Scariness is up to the viewer and as far as the effects go I would love this movie.
If you like cheesy, flashy, 80s, animatronics and CGI as much as I do you'll love the look of this movie. It doesn't "hold up" but that is always the charm, of 80s movies to me. As far as looks I find this movie stunning.
The characters also have some great moments, which make them really look and act like a family.
Cons:
The problem, is the absolutely atrocious editing, which might be the worse I've ever seen in a well loved movie, and maybe period. I can not stress how mindlessly it seems to drag on not knowing what it is doing or where it is going. It actually gets to the point that it's not just bad, but irritating. I've had dreams with more plot.
It is also both in your face about its moralities and yet doesn't really seem to care about them itself, until it turns into a bottomless form of lazy opinion stating, making the scene near the end where the father throws the TV out of the hotel just come off as cheesy, preachy, annoying, and irrelevant.
The editing really suffers most from the fact that the movie feels like a literally haunted house, meaning it has no plot, awful pacing, and seems like the creators just wanted to through in as much stuff as they could throughout without any thought for the story itself whatsoever. I ended up just wondering why the movie was even made if not for the effects.
The script is awful sometimes.
The emotions most of the time are not even there for the characters and hardly felt by the viewer, if ever. It's mostly devoid of feelings for anyone evolved, again like a haunted house, or haystack ride.
At the end of the day it seems like it pushed all the buttons to make a horror movie, albeit a generic one, without being an even decent movie. This I guess is why it is so loved, if that's not why, I can not figure it out.
Mirrormask (2005)
Spellbinding!
One rotten tomatoes review I read of this film said, "While visually dazzling, there isn't enough story to hang all the fancy effects on."
This is a perfect description of the film...as seen by someone who missed the point.
Visuals:
It is a truely beautiful film which feels unbelievably like a dream throughout. The perfect blending of practical and cgi holds up amazingly when viewed as an indulged art piece. And this is how the film should be viewed as it is marked by the style of artist and director, Dave Mckean.
It is a marvelous mood setting film, with the nice feeling of a time now past, mid 2000s. The hazy, smoky and empty wasteland in which the film takes place, feels something like being lost in a large apartment complex old and hot you can smell the moldy carpet, stale cigarette smoke and moth eaten weather worn couches.
Watching the film is like being lost but though disturbing at times there is a constant carefree almost apathetic atmosphere to the other world exactly like a twisted little Alice in Wonderland.
Dialog:
The dialog is remarkably natural and clever with lot of personality and uniqueness. Some lines are delivered with real greatness and have the simplest realism which shines brightly.
Characters:
All the characters are well rounded and have a lot of charm, whether "likeable" or not. They have refreshing little quirks so rarely seen in film. The main leads play off each other well and guide you along wonderfully.
Plot:
The plot has been criticized and that is clearly because some viewers missed the liberty the writer and director give the audience. It's a film to please the eyes and so it lets the art talk, but the artist is telling the story clearly and personlly without ever telling you how to feel. At the basic level it is a coming of age story and truly one of the greatest, but this foundation is as white and simple as the story will be, otherwise it is cluttered with symbolism, metaphor, and analogy, every little bit of landscape and all the choices made throughout it's making have a deliberate purpose in the telling of a wondering and complex maze-like story about, growth, pain, family, life, and choice.
I recommend personally that everyone see this film.
But...
Fans of the strange, macabre, and beautiful will love it!
Il fantasma dell'opera (1998)
Don't watch this movie it's got lots of problems.
This film is beyond problematic as it stars the director's own daughter in revealing cloths and sex scenses.
Not to mention content in his other films when she was of a younger age.
The Reef (2010)
Visually Pleasing and Suspenseful.
Pros:
This will be genuinely frightening if you are even a bit afraid of either sharks, the sea, and/or survival stories.
The film is crisply realistic.
They are not bad actors, and two stand out as above average at their craft(pisst Suzie and Warren.)
The decisions the characters make throughout are very interactive.
The characters are likable and have very good chemistry.
The cinematography is remarkably pretty, with shots that tell the story.
Good job of personalizing the characters.
The script is very natural.
The sound mixing is pretty good.
Truly great suspense building every time.
Excellent foreshadowing.
Makeup doesn't stay on when it is impossible (authentic).
Nice pacing.
Less is more.
Cons:
This would not pass as a news story if it was going to claim "true story".
The characters sometimes make dumb choices in the name of the plot.
Although good overall the acting and script can be a little cringey at times.
Not entirely appropriate for sex leery young thriller fans.
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
The Subtext is Far Ahead of its Time
Cons: It may seem a little drawn out in pacing for people not used to older films. It can be a little heavy, both visually and subject wise, even though it is an upbeat comedy, and some people may dislike that. Some Christians my dislike the stereotyped, glamorized, and comedic representation of Satan typical of early Hollywood.
Pros: The costumes are absolutely beautiful, and the sets are as well. The script is witty and if it's your type of humor it's very funny, it is very well crafted with great nuance. The acting, is in true forties style and spotless, particularly that of Gene Tierney and Ameche. Ameche acts, with his posture, voice tonality, and sublest of facial expressions, far ahead of his time in that. The stars go to him in a large part. The story is an incredibly subtle and admirable expose on parenting, so seamlessly interwoven into the telling to almost be moral less and just a true to life story. The depth of meaning, is far ahead of its time in film, with more of a character like a well written play. The character design is perfect in it's exaggerations, and will be classics to any generation. It is also a wonderful romance for fans of that genre, with perfect chemistry, a story of forgiveness and growth.
It is a truly very well thought out, planned, and executed movie, it feels very much like a passion project, with the under layer of thought and meaning which is in all great films.
Missing Link (2019)
It Leaves a Shaky Message.
Philosophy: The film rallies with the idea of the old fashioned view point beggin necessarily wrong, and though it has good messages about feminism and equity it falls into preachyness and ends up with stereotypes.
It tells a good message about not trying to fit in where you are not wanted, by relinquishing your individuality and goodness.
It talks about corruption in places of power.
However there is a startling amount of brutality while following the idea that people do not change, an amount which is far too bold for a kids movie to the point where it actually kills off a relatively innocent character, in a truly tense way.
There is also a general lack of respect, understanding, and compassion from all of the characters, good or bad which leaves the movie with a coldness and disillusionment I would not promote for a child's film.
Artistry: the three stars go to the animation, as a down side at times, it shows an overly smooth image which is very nearly simple cg. At other times, there's distinct and gritty detail. The way the characters move which is willowy and almost like falling papers, is beautiful, as are the colors. There were also some lovely perspective changes in angles, and placement, one scene in which a boat turns over to show characters running sideways is stunning.
It has a good amount of structure, as far as the plot line, even better than I would say some major films such as Zootopia, its Best Animated Film competitor.
It lands some good jokes.
Kids: I would not say this is a kids film. Because it is fairly bleak and over all any good messages are kind of over shown by other negative factors. There are also as usual some adult jokes and innuendo, which a small child might not notice but that is left to you, as parents understand their own children. I would say an older child is going to catch any adult humor.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Don't Interrupt (1958)
Sociological master piece.
This episode was a different angle for the series and addressed the effects of Reward Based Parenting, a lack of respect for a child and the lack of enthusiasm to parent, on a young boy.
It addresses the importance of structuring a child's morality code as well as addressing how necessary it is for parents to understand children and their "phases". And overall explains how "it takes a village to raise a child", while presenting all the characters as different features of adults raised in different ways. It utilizes money to explain how a value code is formed in the individual, and ultimately by different people collectively. It is an important message for all generations and socioeconomic statuses.