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Reviews
Saw IV (2007)
Very disappointed... they should have stopped on SAW III
Saw III was fascinating... goring, but with bright ideas to develop Jigsaw history. It had its goofs, but it had good characters too. So, that's the main reason SAW IV is so disappointed. It starts with a bloody and strong scene of Jigsaw's autopsies... and guess what! He swelled a tape recorder! At this point I thought: all right, it is exaggerated, but somehow possible...During the film, another unbelievable (or at least improbable) facts goes on, mainly the traps that work as if Jigsaw could predict everyones reacts... even six months after he is dead.
Of course, there are good isolated scene, but it is too little for a series intense like SAW. To tell you the truth, the thing that most annoyed me in the 3 past films (besides the fact that Jigsaw seemed the strongest character in the screen, even when he was about to die in the hospital) is how he could manage to build, to assemble and to hide all his traps? To be honest, in this film they dare try to explain it (thumbs up!), but I guess they could have emphasized the idea.
Well, if you like the series, go see it. I will see SAW 5 next year too. But I bet you too will leave the theater with the sensation that the should have stopped on the 3.
Inside Man (2006)
a Spike Lee surprise
It's a bank robbery film. A very good bank robbery film, to tell the truth. But the reasons to go to a movie theater and watch THE INSIDE MAN are miles away from the history of a audacious plan to steal a bank. It could be the history of everything you can possible imagine, but its the grouping of Denzel Washington's, Clive Owen's and Jodie Foster's talents that make this film amazing. Of course, it's a Spike Lee joint as we didn't see for a long time. There's no racial speech, there's no political point of view trying to be hammered into your head, it's just entertainment as the audience deserves. Clive Owen has a plan: with three associated friend, he will steal a fortune in a bank just because he can. Denzel is the detective designed to negotiate the hostage situation and Jodie Foster is a cold woman with a mysterious job: solve her client's problems at any cost, with no questions. The point here is that Clive doesn't want only the money, Denzel is not the infallible negotiator we expect to see and Jodie's client is the owner of the invaded bank. Talk more is spoil the nice surprises of the plot. It's not DOG DAY AFTERNOOM and there are a few holes in the plot - but it's much more than we are seeing nowadays.
A Causa Secreta (1994)
Go away!
Director/writer Sergio Bianchi adapted a short story from Machado de Assis - one of the finest Brazilian writer in the mid 1800's - to Brazil's mid 90's reality. Here, a group of artists struggle to develop a play. Meanwhile the director/producer tries unsucessfully to get money from the government, the troupe is supposed to do a research on human misery in Brazil. Soon, the egos, the individual interests, the lack of communication between them will look stronger than the sense of group. It could be an interesting movie - but nothing - and i do mean nothing - works! All the actors - even good Brazilian actors - overact. The scenes have no rhythm. The cinematopraphy looks made by someone operating a camcorder. Lights, music, direct sound - forget about it! And there's a disgusting scene of a rattan being tortured that is totally unnecessary. The idea was showing how easily people are becoming indifferent to human suffering, instead you can learn another lesson: how easy a crew with different talents can destroy good ideas.
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004)
Enjoy it like a good book!
I don't remember much about Alien Resurrection the "american film" of Jean-Pierre Jeunet but Delikatesen and Amélie Poulain are two fabulous gens. They have a certain taste of literature to be honest, if those films were books, they'd be that kind of book you'd wish it would never end. And that's the way "A Very Long Engagement" is. I never read the book written by Sébastien Japrisot, but i guess it should be the size of a masterpiece like Don Quixote de la Mancha or something with more than 900 pages. That kind of book so delicious to read.you can't take your eyes off because of the richness of the characters created by Jeunet and, the poetry of the plot and mainly because the power of Mathilde's quest for her fiancée in the french trenches of World War I. Jeaunet, working for the first time with an adapted screenplay, bring us a story with all that good stuff a book would offer and more (much more!) of cinematic magic. The better the book would be, he'd not have neither the cinematography created by Bruno Delbonnel nor the art direction that certainly deserved this year's Oscar. We probably miss the art of supporting actors like Jean-Pierre Becker and the one that plays the detective (sorry, i don't know his name). And most of all, no book brought us Audrey Tautou. She's so good - so emotionally good - that sometimes we completely forget that she once were a girl named Amélie. Just one warning: be sure that can put all of your attention on the story. Mathilde's search is not an easy one and she (and we) seemed lost for several times. It's not a love poem - but its the lovely poem you ever seen for a long time. At least until Jeunet and Tauton met again.
Missing in Action (1984)
Hilarious!!!!
Hilarious! There is not another word to describe this film. I remember I've seen this when I'm 15 and I could not get a ticket to another film. This weekend I rented it just to review what i already thought, 20 years ago, it was a disaster. It was a period of ufanistic productions where one hero could destroy anything that threats America or its ideal of freedom. Films like Rambo II, Red Dawn, Commando or Rocky IV looked seen to be wrote by someone at Reagan's office, but at least they had some qualities. This Braddock had none. Chuck Norris leads the scariest cast of all times (M Emmet Walsh should be punished to do a film like that - how come he had done Blood Simple later?). The screenplay does not make any sense (Braddock kills a character vital to the story a big shot Vietnam general and there are no consequences), the action scenes are primary (the sequence with the boat that should be the climax! - seems to be shot by high school students), the cinematography is awful (mixing up sequences on a bright day and others made on a numb one). So... if you want to remember how the action movies in the 80's were disastrous without its great icons (Stallone and Schwarzenneger), take a look at Braddock... I only wonder if "Invasion USA" is even worse...but that you can tell me.