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Quién sabe? (1967)
Absolutely horrible and w/o any redeeming qualities
Don't waste your time on this one. Basically there really isn't much of a plot at all so it's just a big bunch of shooting and killing for no readily apparent reason. This film just meanders around and not much of a plot is evident at all, although there is a train robbery at the beginning with the bandits robbing the train to raise funds for a political movement. At the end the main character is killed but it doesn't really matter because this film is so horrible you don't even care and probably won't make it that far anyway. Do not recommend this one at all unless you have insomnia and can't fall asleep...
The Twilight Zone: On Thursday We Leave for Home (1963)
One of my top 10 favorite Twilight Zone episodes!
Rod Serling was a genius and this episode is certainly proof of that. His writing and plot development are superb here. The character "Captain" Benteen's rise to dominance could be viewed an allegory for need of some people to dominate others in a general sense. James Whitmore's acting is excellent as well and he does a great job of bringing the self-appointed autocrat "Captain" Benteen to life. Whitmore's soliloquy at the close of the episode is especially memorable and poignant. As an afterthought, this storyline would probably translate well to a play as it all takes place in one basic environment, and so would require only a simple stage set up - so would be fairly easy from a "Props" perspective for a small theater company to perform.
Taken (2008)
Great action flick
One of the best action flicks I've seen. Highly recommend this movie if you like intense action films. I thought Neeson's character's overbearing protectiveness was a little excessive but that was the only thing I could find to complain about, and that isn't much. Lots of great chase scenes brawls and shootouts. Not sure just how accurate the portrayal of the sex slaving industry is but it seemed fairly believable to me. The bad guys seemed genuinely evil and got what they deserved. I never figured Neeson for an action star before but he came through with flying colors in my opinion. I'm hoping they make some kind of sequel, I'd watch it for sure.
Control (2007)
An "Atrocity Exhibition" in leaving out Joy Divsion's best material
From a Joy Division fan's point of view. the 1980 LP "Closer" was ill represented in this film. "Closer" was Joy Division's Magnum Opus yet only one track "Isolation" was played in the film (Although they had small bits of some of the lyrics a couple times). Most of the songs on Closer are extremely dark / somber and I kept expecting them to come into play around the last 1/3 of the film, when Ian was starting to feel despondent / depressed about his situation. I was disappointed that the producers didn't seem to deem them worthy of inclusion... The songs "Passover", "A Means to an End", "Heart and Soul", "Twenty Four Hours", "The Eternal" and "Decades" were all left high and dry which was an "Atrocity Exhibition" in my opinion. All of these songs were the obvious choices for tracks to play during Ian's suicidal descent in the latter part of the film. I don't think the producers of this film were big Joy Division fans or they would have known the the perfect songs for the ending of the film were the songs Ian and Company were writing / recording at the time the events portrayed in the film were happening. I was very disappointed by the omission of most of Ian's / Joy Divisions most important works...
Schindler's List (1993)
Overrated but still worth watching
Spielberg tends to get a bit overly cheesy in his films and this one is a prime example. Obviously the subject matter is intense and there are a lot of good qualities to the film but the ending was the part that really wrecked it for me and made me roll my eyes back in my head. Another example of an overly cheesed out ending that wrecked an otherwise great film was in Spielberg's 2001 film AI. I thought that was an excellent movie all the way up to the end when it just kept dragging on and on and got totally ridiculous. I don't think the ending on Schindler's List as bad as AI but it was still too much icing and not enough cake.
Prêt-à-porter (1994)
zzzzz One of the most boring films ever! zzzzz
This film should be prescribed by doctors as a cure for insomniacs! It really doesn't go anywhere and is a total drag. It's hard to believe so many great actors were willing to participate in this waste of two hours. Tim Robbins made Shawshank Redeption in 1994 (One of the greatest films of all time) and then follows it up with this piece of junk??? Don't really know what he was thinking. Julia Roberts, Sophia Loren and a lot of other big name talents are in the film as well. Like I said earlier, if you are having trouble sleeping rent this DVD and it'll put you right to sleep! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...... I gave it two starts instead of one only for the naked models at the end.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Amazing Film!
One of the most creative / intelligent original story-lines I've ever seen. Great casting too, Will Ferrell is excellent as are those by; Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It's hard to believe this film didn't receive any Academy Award nominations, it certainly should have in my opinion. Especially since "The Departed" won for best movie of the year - that movie was completely over-rated in my opinion.
The alternative music score is great as well. I hadn't heard of the band Spoon and they are listed as one of the main bands that contributed to the soundtrack.
The Departed (2006)
Pretty bad film, I'm sorry to say.
Way too long and boring. Should have cut 60 minutes out and it would have been a lot better. I rented the DVD and almost shut it off a couple times 'cause it just kept dragging on and on. Nicholson is mostly great and Damon / De Caprio are good too, for the most part but this movie really lacks cohesion and just kind of sits there doing nothing for much too long. It starts out OK and the character development is pretty good but I'd say half way through it starts to tread water and doesn't really move forward until it picks up a bit going into the ending. Over all it's a nodder though. I almost fell a sleep a couple times.
The Postman (1997)
Great SciFi movie!
The totally original story is excellent and somewhat believable, even for a SciFi flick. Costner is great in the lead roll but it is the great story line that makes the movie. Don't listen to the critics on this one! See it for yourself and then decide. I haven't read the book yet but might pick it up to see if it is as good as the movie. Usually the book is better than the movie, so we'll see. Why IMDb require their posts to be 10 line I don't know. This seems like a pretty dumb rule to me. I already said what I wanted to say but must type all this junk just so I can submit my post... Maybe they will change this rule if enough people keep typing in this kind of junk..?