Reviews

A previously unheralded (though always very talented) Anthony Hopkins collaborates with Jonathan Demme and shares the spotlight with Jodie Foster, the finest female actor in Hollywood, to create a dark and unsettling masterpiece in this 1991 film about an FBI agent who is sent on a mission to find lady killer Buffalo Bill. The details of the plot are by now a celebrated part of film history. It is the way we are shown Clarice's (Jodie Foster) search for Buffalo Bill that sets this film apart from empty imitators of which it's sequel Hannibal is one.

Foster and Hopkins both won oscars for their performances and are superb. Jonathan Demme also won an oscar for some great direction, particularly of some of the film's more gory scenes. The film's conclusion is one of the greatest scenes in film history, it has been imitated many times since, most successfully in the Joel Schumacher film 8mm, though never quite equalled.

A far cry from the appalling Hannibal.

I personally hold the opinion that Tom Hanks is an over rated actor. I must admit that I haven't seen the Road to Perdition (it's not even out in Australia yet) a performance that apparently may change my mind. He has put in one truly great performance in his career, that being Philadelphia, his other major triumph was Forrest Gump, which was only really a good performance in a great movie. I personally liked him better in his earlier roles such as Joe versus the Volcano and the Burbs, back before he'd developed as an unmistakable presence in a film. The success of this film depended almost entirely on how the audience responded to Hanks. According to the poll I just voted in, the response was nothing short of remarkable. Not just that it made so much money, but also that no one seemed to notice that Wilson the volleyball seemed to have more of a personality than did Hanks' character. (OK, That one is a blatent lie, but I had to use it)

It's all the more remarkable if one considers that the entire film is one big commercial for Federal Express. A kind of cross between 'The Postman' and 'Robinson Crusoe'. They spend the first 20 minutes or so telling us how reliable the service is. Then we learn that the mail is so securely bound as to not become redundant and useless when it falls out of a plane into salt water and floats there for a few days. The real clincher is the film's final scene when Hanks' character actually delivers a package that he has been saving over the four years that he has been stranded on a desert island for.

Federal Express: Not even we can deliver this film from mediocrity.

Geez, it looks like someone's really easily impressed. While given that this movie certainly deserves a higher rating than 4.5 (probably about a 6) it is certainly nowhere near being the best film ever.

Danson, Selleck and Guttenberg are great together and the supporting cast is good too. There is one classic moment (because it is so accurate) of a farmer giving the three men directions on how to get to a church as he describes in painstaking detail the road that they should avoid taking. As with most comedies some of the jokes just don't work at all. This doesn't make it a poor comedy, this just stops it from being a above average one.

This film is a solid piece of feel good cinema with great casting (though not neccessarily a great cast) and I can only assume people rate films on a different scale to me.

What types of reviews are people writing these days. Some one wrote a review for this saying it was bad because it mentions star trek and yet fails to follow vulcan philosophy!

There seems to be two main opinions presented here:

No.1: I like it because it had a good story

and

No.2: I hate Michael Keaton and could not be fussed about even writing a slightly intelligent review because i had predetermined my opinion of the film before I even saw it.

The truth is that this is a good film with a very poor ending. Right up there with Urban Legend, Valentine or any of those other late 90's pop horror films. The acting, contrary to idiotic comments made by others, is excellent. The script is good, the plot, at least up until the dopey ending is quite sound.

Whichever idiot wrote the asenine comment about the woman breaking down on the walkway is obviously not a psychologist and if he is should be shot.

There were many other stupid comments made which I am not going to dignify here with a reference.

I'm pretty sure of what the makers of this film were trying to achieve here and it falls well short. Their goal of course was to make a bigger, better version of Braveheart.

This film which made one reviewer 'proud to be an American' is about Benjamin Martin, 'legendary' hero of the war of Independence. The movie tells the story of Martin's relationship with his sons, most notably the eldest one Gabrielle, as they fight in the battle to free America from the tyranies of the British Empire. Eventually Benjamin's heroic exploits come to the attention of the ruthless Colonel Tavington (Britain's finest Jason Isaacs) who is the films antihero.

You can argue all you want about the Patriot and Braveheart being totally different films but let's face it, there are many obvious similarities. Firstly they both star Mel Gibson playing a patriotic warrior fighting to free his land from the English. In both films Gibson's character is reluctant to go to war until the life of a loved one is taken, and also in both Gibson plays a brilliant but unconventional leader. Having explained my somewhat whiny sounding opinion I will now try to talk about the film on its merits.

There are several great moments, one of the best being when Martin walks into a bar to recruit men for the infantry and yells out 'Long live King George!'. The scene where Martin single handedly takes out a convoy of British soldiers who are about to execute his son is one that will long live in my memory. The direction is nothing you wouldn't expect from the Hollywood epic, but it is the performances of Gibson and Isaacs which make this film a standout.

The battle scenes take turns at being well done and annoyingly overdone. The big battle near the end of the film is very well done, but sadly they couldn't resist the temptation to put in a schmatlzy Hollywood ending where Gibson's character gets the girl.

Overall I must admit that this is a very good movie with more than a reasonable share of blood and guts and enough character development to look past the flag waving and appreciate a great movie. 8 out of 10.