Reviews

There are 2 great things going for this movie: Laura Harring's sexy, exquisite curvaceous body, magnificently revealed in the movie; and Rebekah Del Rio's beautiful enchanting performance of Llorando (Roy Orbison's "Crying").

Those are 2 perfect moments in a film that last nearly 2 and a half hours. And that, unfortunately, is not enough to compensate for the slow moving, confused (probably purposefully confusing) plot.

Granted, one should expect, going in to a David Lynch film, a surreal and confusing experience. This is the director's trademark style, and I have found myself reveling in it in the past.

But here, it seems purposefully constructed to confuse, and once the true meaning IS revealed, it does not hold as a cohesive story, especially when looking back at the entire length of the this overly long film.

For my taste, there are too many distracting characters and throwaway scenes designed just to confuse, and in the end, they do not amount to anything: the cowboy. the large hit-man in the director's home. etc. I can appreciate the symbolism and the surreal atmosphere they add to the movie. But in the end, the amount of time the movie spends on these scenes is disproportionate with the fact that they're only there for atmosphere.

Still, the 2 good things I mentioned are well-worth the watch for some people, myself included.

Just reading the plot synopsis, you would think this as low as the horror genre could go. But the plot synopsis is misleading. It's a nice little gem of a movie.

This film breathes some fresh air into the common horror-comedy-teen drama genre by ironically taking the male predators in this movie and making them victims of an innocent girl with a rare mutation. If guys are only thinking with their crotches at that age, then they sure get what they deserve in this film.

Disguised as a simple, well-executed horror-comedy, "Teeth" is laced with subtext criticizing American puritanism: Biology textbooks are defiled by the board of education, leaving our heroine clueless about her body; Abstinence movements turn out to be mere gatherings of sanctimonious hormone-overwhelmed teens.

So under the fun scenes you probably imagine from the plot, you've got a nice little message too.

Sunshine is a near-perfect sci-fi film. It follows the more serious, thought provoking sub-genre of sci-fi, and yet manages to remain gripping, suspenseful and exciting throughout the entire film.

The plot deals with the journey of Icarus II and its crew, on their journey to the sun, our star, which is dying. To save mankind from freezing, their mission is to reignite the sun by detonating a stellar bomb within the sun. Will they succeed? Will they survive to return? What sacrifices must they make on their way to complete their mission?

Danny Boyle expertly directed an intelligent space-drama, which focuses on moral dilemmas and human conflicts amongst the characters. Thanks to a well crafted script and superb performances by the cast, the film pulls off both the drama and the sci-fi. The film works hard and succeeds at making the science very believable, and yet not complicated or intimidating. The solid performances are very persuasive, and make the characters' conflicts, decisions and struggles seem very plausible and real. And to top all of this, the special effects are truly magnificent. The sun has never been seen this beautiful and mystifying.

So why not a perfect score? Because of the ending. Without spoiling anything more, let's just say that the one final element added near the end of the film spoiled this near-perfect film, and was not on-par with the realism of the film and with the intricacy of the rest of the script.

But don't let that put you off. It really is a wonderful film!