Reviews

"A Single Man" is by no means innovative, ground-breaking or surprising. What it is -- is best quality filmmaking, which is so rare these days. Great script from a good story, great acting, great camera work. Great directing. I watched it without checking out IMDb first, and, being thoroughly impressed, looked the director up. His first movie?? Wow... While I would vote it in at an 8 (maybe 9), I am giving it a 10 just for that. Can't wait for another one from Tom Ford.

Somebody called it "flat as cardboard". Don't fall for that approach. If you are used to look deeper than the surface of your TV screen, you will find a lot to think about. If not -- well, then everything is just as flat as the screen. And for those who detest the idea of gay relationship -- it really does not matter here. It is about how one lived his life, gay or straight.

No, really – literally. This is what you'll be seeing for a better part of 2 hours on the screen - garbage. Lots of it. Aliens digging in it, the hero being repeatedly thrown into it, the inevitable cliché ruthless mercenaries fighting in it.

I won't even bother describing the weak social message the movie tries to get across (or at least we are told that it does, I tried to look for it but could not figure it out). It is hopelessly lost in the incredulous plot, pointless action and piles of garbage.

There is only one full-time human role, that of Wikus – the main hero. The "prawns" are of about Cronenberg's Fly quality, but what was acceptable back in 1986 just does not cut it anymore. The only, as I said, full-time human character's performance is impressive if you are impressed by an actor with only one look on his face – permanent desperation, and two ways to deliver his words – pleading breathlessly or screaming hysterically. I hope that Sharlto Copley can do better than that, because here the screenplay did not leave him much room for any other emotion. Not a lot of room when you are standing knee-deep in garbage.

Technically the movie is substandard for a 2009 flick of any budget. There is an alien ship painted in the sky, a few alien guns with action so familiar from Doom and Half-Life, and even a (spoiler?) ubiquitous battlebot. Its movements are about as lifelike as those of the first Terminator. The jittering "handycam footage" style is hard on the eyes even on your TV screen. I'm glad I did not go to the theatre – the motion sickness prone spectators could barf. On the other hand, there is enough visual content there that can cause the same reaction. Remember – garbage.

I cannot believe that IMDb audience rated this movie so high, almost on par with Avatar. The latter was often criticized for a weak screenplay. I can agree to an extent. Nevertheless, Avatar compensates with scenes of incredible beauty. With District 9 the gaping holes in the plot are landfilled with garbage.

PS -- I read a few more reviews to try to understand why could anyone -- capable of writing a review -- like this film. I could not. People call it Sci-Fi. Excuse me, there is most definitely no Sci here. Aliens living in garbage -- not Sci. There is also no Fi -- fiction is something that assumes a coherent story. No folks, still nothing but garbage.

Folks, I do not mind a stupid movie once in a while. They help you fight stress, etc. etc. This one is beyond stupid. It's totally imbecile. And totally enjoyable. I watched it alone and I was laughing out loud (I would be probably embarrassed to laugh if somebody was around).

Complete trash. Complete waste of time. But in a good way. If one day you come back from work feeling your brain cannot take it any more -- watch this. It will hit the spot.

It probably will not take it's place on your DVD shelf, but it will serve it's purpose: put a stupid grin on your face, if only once. "Good trash" at its finest.

Having a thing for weird movies, I rented this one. If not for the perspective of arguing with rental clerks, having them calling "the manager" and so on, I would have demanded my money back. Just to make a statement's. Speaking of taste, this movie was worse than "There's Something About Mary", although we were spared a Cameron Diaz lead. Might as well had her in the cast, why not?

The bottom line is, Why? Why did you bother gathering decent actors, making them recite the ridiculous script and then releasing this thing? If it was a spoof, it was not funny. If it was drama, it was unacceptably bad taste. Maybe it was a drama of a spoof or a spoof of a drama of a spoof -- I do not know.

Bottom line -- steer away.

For a long time, I was (and still am) skeptical about Disney movies, whichever size and shape they come in. About 7 minutes into this one I was saying to myself, "The artwork is amazing, CG (*I'm a computer person, so I yearn for really cool, CPU-intensive CG*) is totally unrivaled, but the story line sucks so bad, why I am watching another Disney tear-squeezer??"

Well, looks like after 15 minutes of run time Pixar guys had a brief meeting and said, "Screw you, Disney, we are not letting you ruin another one!"

Please -- bear for exactly 15 minutes of the most syrupy kindergarten stuff (stunning visuals will help you, though you might feel guilty about watching this while wide awake, instead, say, shoveling the snow), and watch the 199% predictable slop explode into one of the most ironic, witty, and -- did I mention that? -- beautifully constructed CG cartoons of all time.

Did you like "Shrek"? Well, this is not exactly "Shrek" material, but still IMDB 10 grade. Just because IMDB gives you only 10 points to choose from. On a scale of 100, "Shrek" would be 100, and "Nemo" would pull about 92.

Just sit back, settle yourselves; I repeat, you'll need to watch the first 15 minutes to grasp the plot (though not necessarily, there's enough redundancy in the dialogs for the late-comers (or the denser crowd)), and enjoy -- really enjoy! -- the rest.

You will see a couple of scenes where the Disney managers came back and tried to ruin (sorry, save! of course, save from the hand of perverted Pixarians!) the movie, but these episodes were only mildly irritating and quickly dissolved themselves without overall damage to the spectacular, weird and funny world of talking, blinking, breathing, flirting fish.

Worth to watch. Most probably worth to own, if anything, just to watch your favorite little charming scenes again and again.

Enjoy, /D