adi-cat's Reviews

6 Month Rule (2011)

18 May 2013

I wasn't sure whether the other 4 reviews were fake or not but decided to give it a try anyway as I like the genre.

And I'm glad I did it; this was pretty cool and well acted.

Despite the low budget, this doesn't show and the characters felt genuine and at ease, even though they're not blockbuster stars. Also they are given enough screen time so that you can actually start to care for them.

I liked the guy who played Ty (he seems pretty natural on screen) and the girl which played Sophie was a very pleasant surprise as well.

The fact that it doesn't feel contrived or cheesy at any point, it doesn't try too hard and yet somehow it touches some chords inside, made it work for me.

All in all, it left me with a pleasant feeling, even though you don't get the standard happy ending fare in this one.

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The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

It manages to portray women as the marvelous creatures they are

16 July 2011

I've never read Jane Austen. Not so far, at least. So, I couldn't draw parallels and recognize all the characters of the novels that frequently interweave in conversations along the film.

That didn't prevent it from sucking me in from the first minutes.

Jane Austen apart, I think this is a great piece of cinema, for the exquisite acting it displays and the rich script. I've seen a lot of movies. Really, a big lot. And the problem with it is that after a while you sort of start to see the strings behind the curtain, in most of the movies you watch... you can't really get inside the story as easy as you used to before; you notice every little fake acting, error, plot hole, you name it.

This was a refreshing exception from that. The acting was so real, pleasant and captivating. The story is catching you from the beginning and doesn't let go; the characters literally grow on you.

It had some real life drama, but all sweetened by the warmth of the friendship that shines between all the female leads and the way they managed to always care for each other through the rough moments.

And the acting is gripping. The emotional range displayed, astonishing. The quiet looks of Jocelyn when Grigg starts paying attention to Sylvia or when he talks about her in the library say more than a thousand words; the guilty look in Prudie's eyes when she looks across the street meaning to cross over towards the boy she's attracted to, are just a couple samples of perfect expressiveness without words.

As opposed to the main bulk of Hollywood movies lately, in which most of the female characters are more or less displayed as tits and ass, this one manages to portray women as the truly marvelous creatures they are; deep, complex beings, strong and fragile, beautiful and insecure at once, a rainbow of emotional paradoxes.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy tits and ass in a film as much as the next guy, but most of the time you can't help feeling that a lot of female characters miss a central piece of their personality puzzle, across a lot of movies. This is one of those films which brings back that missing piece of the puzzle, and it does that with an underlying profound sense of serenity and grace.

I say this one is definitely a keeper, in my book.

9/10

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Daydream Nation (2010)

Left me with mixed feelings

12 June 2011

I went ahead and checked this one, as I liked quite a bit Kat Dennings in "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" and I decided since then that I'd check the next movie with her that comes under my eyes.

She has a sort of "not-trying-to-be-cute or bad either" attitude that kind of hooked me and suites her very well. That being said, I think it's because of her that the film somehow worked for me; she seems to be a good actress with a lot of potential and she managed to keep all of this together and carry her leading role with ease and grace.

There are some other characters in the movie which have good performances too, and there are some little beautiful moments in there, but for me it was Kat that held all of this in one piece.

However, after seeing this, thinking back at it I realized that if it was somebody else who played her role, this would probably have been easily forgettable, for me.

So, there you go, I'm biased. As somebody else was saying, there are quite a bit of scenes or events in the movie which seem a little superfluous or pointless, at least in the sense that they don't lead anywhere further and thus become weird mere "decorations".

All in all it was nice to see Kat carry out a more complex role with the same ease and style she displayed in the "teen" posture she had in the other movie.

I'm not sure how much this review will help anyone decide whether to see it or not; I guess you'll just have to make up your own mind about this one. ;)

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The Chronicles of Hollow Earth: The Next Race (2009)

What a bore

4 February 2011

Gorguruga (the nick of the first reviewer) where on Earth were you a few days ago!?? Should I have seen your review a couple of days earlier, when I got my hands on this film, I would have run soooo fast in the opposite direction.

If you read this, save yourself the pain of watching this hunk of trash; you can do way better with your time.

I won't even begin to reiterate all the things that are wrong with this movie, they are so many that it would actually be easier to try and find one or two good things in it.

Anyway, above all, the ending blew me out of the water. In the worst way possible, that is. Basically, there is no ending. When you begin hoping that something interesting will actually start to happen and save the movie from oblivion, in fact it smartly decides to end.

The whole film builds up slowly towards a climax that never happens, because it ends prematurely, and you're left with a perplexed look on your face, wondering what the hell was in your head when you decided to watch this.

It looks like all the guys involved in production decided among themselves: "Let's pull a prank on the viewers and only make half of a movie. Then we'll have a good laugh looking at their faces as they watch the credits in awe."

Well, news flash gentlemen: The joke is on you. ;)

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Cougars Inc. (2011)

Well, I liked it

1 January 2011

I decided to give this one a shot after seeing James Belushi and Denise Richards on the credits. That, and the fact that there was no review for this title on IMDb; it kinda felt like a "virgin" territory to explore.

And I don't regret it, because I ended up liking it. The acting was believable without any of the forced over-the-top or wooden performances that you see in crappy movies where you are constantly reminded that some people are trying to act and the results are painful to watch.

The lead character which plays Sam was natural, the role fit him like a glove and in the end it felt like he pulled it off with style; and the other characters delivered good performances too.

I wouldn't know where to classify this but it certainly isn't a comedy. The story is somewhat original (at least I haven't seen another movie about high-school kids doing escort services for older women) but it doesn't fall into cheap clichés, not a little bit and all the little side stories are neatly weaved into the main one.

It has a sweet-sad tone all through, however, it also has a sort of light feeling of hope to it and the music helps building and keeping that up.

All in all, I didn't end up regretting the time I spent on it (as I do with a lot of movies, lately) so what I can tell you is, give it a try and make up your own mind about it. This isn't your garden-variety blockbuster but I think you'll find it a quite good way to spend one and half hours on a stormy afternoon.

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Stargate Universe (2009–2011)

Man, this show it's so depressing

23 October 2010

This is one really depressing series. What the hell is wrong with these guys? If I want gloomy I can just look out the window or get out into the street and look at people's faces. I'll get all the bleakness, gloominess and depression I need.

Where is O'Neill (with two "ll"s, nota bene) and Teal'c or Jackson and Carter? Where are all the funny characters like doctor Lee or the really cool bad guys like Baal or Maybourne. Or should we get closer to present times with the Atlantis crew? Sheperd, McKay, Ronon and Beckett were waaaaaay more fun than the actual crew. As someone else was saying, I couldn't give a damn if anyone from the actual show died (in the series, that is). None of the characters is really LIKABLE.

And to just quote another review, NOTHING REALLY interesting is HAPPENING! As compared to the goa'uld conquest attempts or the replicator offensive or the Ori campaign, the action in this series is a big ZERO. It might be good for putting babies to sleep though.

I don't know what is wrong with the script writers. These guys used to come up with gold scripts for more than 90% of the episodes. Either they lost their touch and their interest or some moron stepped in and told them how the show should feel and look like (BAD, BAD idea, if that's the case).

And what's with the freaking zillions of pipes running through all the ship? Destiny looks like a submarine from the World War 2. What, is it running on steam to get into FTL? Man, the guys who designed the sets for Star Wars had way better imagination than this and it was a couple of decades ago.

Compared to this both the pyramid ships of SG1 and the crafts from Atlantis looked like they were eons ahead technologically.

Heck, when it comes to it, I can't really think of a SF show who had a more claustrophobic and needlessly primitively looking interstellar ship.

My patience along with that of many other SG fans is running very thin.

I think that someone ought to email all the reviews from this site (concerning SGU) to the producers of the show. Maybe they'll come to their senses and start doing something good out of it or if not, just park Destiny at the next stop into a red giant star and save both us and the crew from many other hours of misery.

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Dumping Lisa (2009)

Pretty lame

5 September 2010

It could have gone somewhere, but for the flawed script and the, at many times, horrible acting which took it nowhere.

It really looks and feels amateurish. The plot drags like forever, and if the first part was credible at least to some degree, the last one is pretty hilarious. But in a bad way.

I can't imagine how anyone would put his money into such a thing. It's actually much easier to throw them out the window.

I kept hoping that it will come to its senses at some point and get better, but boy... this one is perseverent and insists on being bad right up to the end.

I recommend keeping it at bay, because those are 100 waisted minutes of your life that you'll never get back.

Ye were warned.

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The Expendables (2010)

It's sooo cool to see so many one-man-show guys in a single show

1 September 2010

I don't know what the whole lot of guys who are complaining about this movie were expecting, but clearly they either didn't know Stallone's movies very well or took the wrong decision of going into the theater when they should have been elsewhere.

If I want to watch opera I don't go an Iron Maiden concert. So, my question to all those who are complaining is: WTF were you doing in the cinema, in the first place? If you're all about elaborate plots, deep character developing, moving emotions and character studies you should have stayed home or have found another movie to watch.

This movie wasn't SUPPOSED to develop characters that much: it has a main cast made entirely of guys who are usually the stars of a one-man-show type of movies, each in their own right. When one sees such a cast, you'd at least assume that there's going to be a lot of fighting, blowing, wrecking... whatever. That doesn't leave much time for character development but it doesn't necessarily means that the movie isn't A LOT OF FUN.

This movie ROCKS! It never takes itself too seriously and neither should anybody else. It's more or less a no brainer. The plot is just enough to set up the stage for the action scenes. But once you acknowledge that, you'll be able to enjoy tons of mind-blowing action, fights, car chase, explosions and gore in the good ol' fashioned way of the 90-ies.

Any fan of a game called Serious Sam should know exactly what I'm talking about.

Some other guys picked on the fact that one or another of the actors look old. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Is that even an argument? Some of these guys are old. So what? Have your brains been so much spoon-fed with the Hollywood "forever-young" metrosexual image that you can't engulf the idea of old age? These characters are supposed to be old soldiers and mercenaries, so what if their faces are a little "roughed up"?

Anyway, to make a long story short, if you like tons of cool testosterone-filled action without intricate plots, and you weren't yet turned into an emasculated whining bitch by the "modern society", then you'll probably find at least something to like into this one.

I certainly did like it, so the movie and Stallone along as a director get a 10/10 for lots of fun and adrenaline-pumped action.

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My Last Five Girlfriends (2009)

Not that good as the other reviewers would have you think

31 August 2010

Warning: Spoilers

I have to say that I decided to watch this after reading the other 4 reviews on this movie. Now I wish I didn't. It failed to impress me on so many levels. A large part of the movie is narrated, which may work well under certain circumstances and when done in the right conditions but for me... well, narration in a movie should have a much smaller part to play (while introducing some scenes, or explaining a few things) not constitute almost one third of it.

Moreover, I don't know if the director intended it to be this way, but the whole emotional picture of the movie seems so bleak and sordid. On top of that you're never really being told why the main character is being dumped by all of his 5 girlfriends in a row.

I mean, it's kind of obvious that he exhibits some type of wuss-like behavior, at least with some of them, but you never get to really learn the women's perspective on the matter, or see the character having an epiphany on the reasons why his sentimental life has been a complete failure so far. He doesn't seem to be capable to understand why women run off him and by the end of the movie he isn't any wiser on the matter then at the beginning. Perhaps a little more depressed.

Due to that fact, the meeting with the last girl in the end of the movie, instead of shedding a ray of hope on his future love life, it kind of leaves you with the sentiment that he's probably going to screw that up, as well.

I have to admit, it has a few moments when it gets a little warmer and it gives you the feeling that it might get better from there on. But then it ultimately disappoints.

As I said, totally unimpressive and forgettable, in my book. But that's just my two cents' worth.

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Bluebeard (2009)

Boy... what a bore!

26 June 2010

I can't tell you how disappointed and bored I was while watching this movie.

I kept hoping with all my heart that it will pick up its feet at some point and start delivering some feeling, magic, action or whatever. But alas, that was all in vain.

It keeps the same slooooooow pace from start to end, the actors keep showing the same inexpressive faces and delivering the same emotionless dialogs.

That is when they bother to speak. In the rest of the time they keep staring in some more or less distant point for quite long periods (I suppose it's meant to show us how deep they feel or think).

I don't know how the book ends... but the end of the movie looked pretty fuzzy and stupid to me.

You're never told why Blue Beard did all those horrible things or how did the little girl managed to escape.

The only good things in this movie were the costumes and locations, I guess.

All in all, if you expect some bit of fairy-tale, of magic, of fantasy or anything at all which would glue you to the chair in front of the screen, I think you'll be pretty disappointed.

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Old Dogs (I) (2009)

Man, I haven't laughed so hard in a loooong time!

21 February 2010

Travolta and Williams are an explosive combination in this one. Scratch all the bad comments you may have read. Sometimes, people watching movies try to be too damn smart and eclectic for their own good. Instead they end up just being plain snobs.

This is supposed to be a light-hearted funny comedy, not philosophical argument. You shouldn't have to keep your Freud, Heidegger or Kant books at hand just to feel good about a movie you watch. It's okay to just kick back, relax, go with the flow and enjoy yourself every once in a while.

This is supposed to be silly, crazy entertainment and it delivers... in spades! These two sacred monsters of the screen show us that they still got the "mojo".

If you loved Robin Williams' "Mrs. Doubtfire", I think you'll most certainly love this one as well.

So, do yourself a favor on this one, don't listen to others... just see it and make up your own mind.

Some of the comments are way off. I've even read one that said this movie is racist because most of the main characters have blue eyes. Can you believe that? We have a racist, "anti-racist". (lol)!!!

On that note, it's racist that the actors happen to have blue eyes but it's not racist from the commenter's part to pick on their appearance or looks. Some think that just putting yourself on the "right", "anti-racist" side, allows you to make any comments about others; even if they're way overly-racist. God help us!

As for the rest of the guys who are all bitter about it... well, go to a museum instead, look at some paintings with a few crossed lines, some dots and paint splashes and marvel at the "deep", "overwhelming" artistic emotions they inspire in you. And feel good about how "different" and "profoundly superior" you think you are. ;-) Don't spoil our fun.

I'm sorry, you guys who complain about this, that this one couldn't meet your expectations. It's true, there's no cruel humor, no tits and ass, no explicit sexual content or innuendos... what's to laugh about, right?

Well, it was never meant to be. Just plain old-fashioned fun... for those who can still enjoy it. :D

As for the rest of those who keep balking at it: you are hereby and henceforth banished from the fun side! :D

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Agora (2009)

Another inept Hollywood take on mankind history

21 February 2010

Warning: Spoilers

I'll start with the good parts.

Rachel shines as usual. Not because her character is that interesting in the movie (though it looks like it might be in the beginning) but because her inner usual charisma.

She seems bent to seek originality at all costs, though, in the last years. Alas, this one is too "original" for her own good, I think.

There is some interesting picture of the city and of the atmosphere of the time. Realistic costumes and scenery. And it pretty much stops there.

If you're into fictional stories, historical inaccuracies and misinterpretations which only retain some names but twist the events to the point of even making you laugh, then go for it. I for one, totally regret the time I lost watching it.

You'd be better off reading a story about the big bad wolf. There also, everything is black and white but at least nobody's pretending to lecture you about history.

Pretty soon after the start it shows the arson which supposedly consumed the famous Library of Alexandria.

Except that the great majority of the historians, corroborating all the existent written sources, agree that the fire happened during one of Cesar's comings to Alexandria long before the time of this movie, in a totally different historical context. In fact, centuries before any character in this movie would have been born (sic!).

Or at least some extent of time before the period when the action of this movie unfolds.

Besides, the Serapeum is considered to have been a smaller, outer, public library, not the main Royal library which hosted apparently between 400.000-700.000 scrolls.

Even being a smaller building, the Serapeum is supposed to have held somewhere around 40.000 manuscripts. What they show being burned there is a little more than all my books from the all the 4 high-school years.

Furthermore, historians agree (based on historical evidence) that when the temple of Serapis was demolished at the order of emperor Theodosius, in year 391, it didn't contain anymore, since quite long, any books at all.

I won't spoil further the pain of watching this bore, as what comes after that, looks way to politically seasoned, flavored and biased to be considered even remotely close to the historical facts.

It's a pity, because it could have been good. It ended up just being another twisted and misinterpreted piece of history, the likes of which Hollywood seems to be feeding us ever increasingly in the latest years.

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2012: Supernova (2009 Video)

Do yourself a favor... DO NOT watch this!

25 October 2009

I know that the minimum for a comment is 10 lines but I'll have to work hard to come up with them for such a pile of crap. This is an insult to the intelligence of anyone older than 10 years. It makes your garden variety B movie look like an Oscar candidate. I guess in a Saturday afternoon, after a few 6-packers some guys just thought:

"-Hey, we should make a sci-fi movie.

-Wow, that's great! Let's do it!

-OK, but how do we do it? We'll need a script, and actors and special effects and a lot of other things.

-Never mind, we'll just wing it. We'll rent a warehouse and call it the secret base, a bunch of weird looking guys and call them scientists and that's pretty much it. Oh yes, we'll show a stream of rocks traveling through space form thousands of light-years headed towards a single point in the Universe: Earth. And that's pretty much all there is to it. Of course, let's not forget the two chicks who run through all the movie."

So, they went on and made it. The only bad thing was that they never sobered up. So, instead of what it should have been, this pathetic excuse for a movie came up, which turns out to be a horrible rip off of Armageddon. If you're looking for an effective way to kill braincells go and watch this movie. Otherwise run for your life! My thumb is still glued to the fast forward button.

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Seven Pounds (2008)

This is what brilliants are made of

17 January 2009

A simply and truly beautiful movie. I've been reading many of the comments here on this movie, and seeing how many they were and how they did it justice speaking in superlatives I was thinking..."Hey what could you say more, that hasn't already been said about it?". But then further I've seen some negative comments, of which some clearly pointed out that the authors never even SAW the movie in the first place. Or they saw it and they're incredibly dumb and didn't understand anything. Anyway I decided to post just to join the choir of voices who praise it and say that this is Oscar material indeed. What I loved most about it was the fact that after the first minutes I FORGOT I WAS WATCHIG A MOVIE, and that hasn't happened in a while. I usually can't help judging more or less technical flaws in a movie, yet this one really managed to do what any movie should, that is sweep you inside the magic it creates and keep you there till the very end of it. Will and Rosario are great together and there is so much substance in their characters. The whole concept of self-sacrifice lived literally to the very end is striking, powerful and overwhelming. I won't say more except that anyone who loves those really great and beautiful movies that come out once in a while should not miss this one, 'cause... this is what brilliants are made of.

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Seraphim Falls (2006)

A real gem

21 December 2008

Truly, a brilliant movie. Add the charisma of Brosnan and Neeson, which alone could have carried a long way the movie, to a powerful script, great acting, loads of action and a beautifully shot picture and I think we have the ingredients for a movie you will not forget soon. At least I'm not going to. The most interesting thing about it in the first half, from my point of view, besides the quickly unfolding action, is the fact that even though we are introduced to a conflict from the very beginning there is no clue who is the good and who is the bad guy so you really don't know who to root for. In fact this is so masterfully concealed that until the point you find out you kind of start caring for both of them. And even after you find out you can't draw the line and decide who should die and who should survive. In the second part as the tension goes to the limit the characters get pushed to the limits too, both physical and psychical. Some may say that here it starts to grow far from the reality but if we focus on the inner experience of someone who would actually "be" in those extreme conditions, I think the reality may start to fade and mix with something "different". This culminates with the encounter with the devil in the desert, who sets them up with no alternative but to kill each other. Yet the forecast of the ending beautifully eludes him... In three words: I loved it

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