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Reviews
The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Pointless Misery
An awful, awful film. I cannot understand why this film has received such praise when it is now only the second movie I have walked out on in my entire life (the other being Wigstock, look it up and you'll probably understand why). The characters were so incredibly one-dimensional from the innocent girls each with their own assigned character trait to the nun who was just written to be so unrealistically evil that it could have been played comically like a character in a Roald Dahl book.
The following reasons have been given as to why this is such a good movie: 1) "It was so shocking and horrible!" and 2) "Its based on facts!". Somehow for me this does not automatically make a movie good. A movie on the holocaust is not automatically a masterpiece simply because it is the quintessential response to the above two criteria. I decided that I just couldn't take any more of it about an hour through it when in about 4 consecutive scenes I was able to predict the next occurrence simply by asking "Gee, whats the worst thing that could happen to her or what is the most evil thing the nun could do?" and sure enough thats what would happen, making for a completely unenjoyable movie.
And what am I supposed to find shocking in all this??? That the Catholic church's (or any organized religion's) dogmas have resulted in horrible things being done to people? jeez, pick up any history book. Crusades, inquisitions, witch hunts, martyrdoms, horrible massacres, wars, and nowadays jihad, abortion-clinic bombings/shootings and other forms of terrorism. This is not new information. Or am I to find it shocking that women have been held to horrible double-standards throughout human history? Again, this is not new information. This is wretched cheap filmmaking just trying to shock an audience by having innocent people being subjected to evil actions.
And simply because things like it did happen does NOT therefore make it a good movie!
Roger & Me (1989)
Too slanted to be worthwhile
Now I'm about as liberal as anyone I know, but I cannot support Moore's blatant bias any more than I can support Limbaugh, O'Reilly or anyone else on the right's bias. Misrepresentations of a situation are lies no matter which end of the political spectrum they come from. Coming from my political position, I also find it insulting that Moore would feel he has to do this manipulative work in order to justify his position. In order to do this he has invented an almost new form of documentary, one that is the complete antithesis to the spirit of the genre, one that is without objectivity.
When he gave the statistics about GM and how much money they were worth, that has to do with a) the overall size of the company, not its percentage profits and b) the total net profits of all the plants, not the profits of the Flint plant.
Politics should be about open debate attempting to reach a truth, not simply trying to shout across your very-slanted view on an issue without leaving room for the opposing viewpoint. Moore's tactics make him no better than his right-winged opponents who he lambasts, in a way I am embarassed his is "on my side".
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
just not that funny
well, i go to a university that has plenty of frats and ive seen plenty of examples of frat guys and frat parties, and i can see some of the guys ive seen around modeled in this movie, so that was somewhat entertaining. i laughed a few times during the movie, and that about sums it up. this is just no where near a "classic comedy". its not a "must see" for college students. i agree with an earlier comment by a user who said "comedy sure has come a long way" and im glad for it. 4/10
Wigstock: The Movie (1995)
Unforgettable
I'll never forget this movie because whenever someone asks me "what's the worst movie you've ever seen?" I always have a quick answer (although no one has ever seen this apart from the one friend of mine who was also duped into seeing this). This is like a cruel hell being forced to watch this movie, every new person that comes on the screen annoys you to new levels. Simply the worst time I've ever had or hope to have watching a movie.
Training Day (2001)
good performance, moderate script
a great performance by denzel washington as he seems to be becoming a better and better actor. however, not much accompanying him in terms of his acting partner and script. if your a denzel fan, you should see this movie, but otherwise, save it for a rental night if you're a bit desperate. 6/10
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
wow what a bad movie
*tiny SPOILER when i complain about the lack of ending*
first of all i'd just like to point out what a complete copy of Point Break this was (not that that was a movie that deserved copying). second of all, where was the plot, acting or anything else that generally goes into making a movie? i did notice fast cars. there were a lot of those let me tell ya. and the end? why were they racing over the railroad track? for "the thrill of it"? gimme a break. and the guy threw away his entire career as a police officer because he had "respect" for the other guy? or was it for the girl that we dont even know if he ends up with. again, wow what a bad bad movie.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
I would not wish the viewing of this "movie" upon my worst enemy
i wanted this movie to be good, a couple of my close friends said they loved it, and the reviews seemed to be good. however, i thought it was one of the worst five movies i have ever seen (and ive seen some bad movies). i usually really like dark comedy, but this movie was devoid of any plot, acting or script. the set design was supposed to make it seem more "real" i guess, but instead it just made me claustrophobic and sick. in every shot the background was painted some puke shade of pink or orange. i am at a loss as to why people found this movie good. the entire time i was just waiting for the movie to get funny, glancing at my watch more and more as the movie went on, but it never did. i can appreciate situational comedy, i can appreciate dark comedy, but words cannot describe how utterly unfunny i found this movie. i will never get those two hours back. i give this movie a 1.5 out of 10, only because i barely chuckled 1 or 2 times during the movie.