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Reviews
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Meh
What happens when you take 3 amazing actors and throw them together in a movie that bills itself as being a deep, interesting, and intense drama? A rather pathetic attempt at being deep, interesting and intense. As one would expect from a movie starring Bill Nighy, Cate Blanchett, and most of all Judi Dench, it was certainly well performed, but one got the sense that it was through forcing themselves through the role, rather than actually enjoying what they were doing. The only one that seemed to have any sense of the character was Bill Nighy. Cate Blanchet seemed to feel completely uncomfortable in her role as the seduced, Judi Dench seemed to hate playing a bumbling old bitty attempting manipulation, and even Andrew Simpson seemed to not enjoy his role as the seducing young boy. The movie left things very up in the air about the whole sort of relationship between Barbara and Sheba, whether or not it was a close friendship or something that was supposed to have progressed into something sexual, whether it was wanted to progress into something sexual or not. I'm rather unsure if the aim of the makeup department was to make Dame Judi look like a walking corpse or not, but comparing her appearance in Casino Royale to her appearance here, she looks like a skull on a stick, where she looked healthy in Casino Royale. While being beautiful acted, and wonderfully scored by the ever-amazing Phillip Glass, the script felt like it HAD to explain the manipulations to you, and that the viewer could not figure out the reasoning behind the manipulation on their own. A decent film, perhaps worthy of an acting award or two, but most certainly not deserving of a best picture.
An American Haunting (2005)
Well...it COULD be worse.
This movie...had a lot of things going for it. It had Donald Southerland. It had Sissy Spacek. It had a pretty decent concept. It had amazing cinematography.
Only the things going for it seemed to halt halfway through it.
I think Donald Southerland didn't realize he died at the end. Cause it looked like he slowly got more and more annoyed at the movie, with occasional scenes where it looked like the energy and the pep was still up and then that gradual decline into "why the hell did I pick this movie again?" Sissy Spacek reminded me of the old ladies that do temp work, like she picked this movie not because she needed to work, but because she felt like doing something with her time. And James D'arcy went "Hey! It's a period piece! That's all I do!" and signed his name (i think it's with the curse of being a Mr. Darcy) The entire theater with the exception of six people that got up and left and got the management (who came in, saw the entire theater cracking on the movie and left), was busy cracking on the movie. The movie was MADE to be MST'd. Usually, I get annoyed at the people that MST movies that I have yet to see all the way through. This time, I was joining them. I have never laughed so hard at a non-comedy in my life.
The camera-work, which I thought was the best part of the movie, got nauseating at parts, reminding me of the Houdini ride at Six Flags Great Adventure, constantly spinning you around the room and swooping up and down and making you think you're going to hurl the popcorn and gummi bears you've just scarfed down. They should have warnings outside the theater "warning, may cause motion-sickness" but it DID force you to be uncomfortable with what you were seeing, as did the music. Aside from the clichéd "person walking up the stairs" shot that was reused more times than I could count in this movie, the cinematography was interesting. It used seconds of film in black and white to add to the discomfort of the shot, and it did make the movie almost creepy. Almost.
But there was nothing even remotely scary about this movie. No point in time when I had any fear of the ghost coming after me. no point in time where I was remotely creeped or where anyone wanted to jump out of their seat or scream. In fact, we were all LAUGHING at every scene that was supposed to be scary.
So I can't give this movie a 1 because it was terribly entertaining in just that it was so...terrible. Definitely a movie I suggest to see with friends when bored to death. because this movie will probably make you laugh yourself to death instead.
The Harvest (1993)
Pretty good
So I just saw this and I do say it was really good. Although I don't quite think someone who's just woken up minus a kidney can do all the fights that Charlie did it's really pretty good. It did stray a few times from the good path-it tried to make itself unpredictable and different, and I think it probably would have faired better if they didn't do that. I especially disliked the ending, up until the end I was quite enjoying the movie (if only for Miguel Ferrer being half naked for half the film.) I did think that for being married before the film Miguel and Leilani seemed to lack some passion, Miguel seemed very distracted during the love scenes (the only one that he has any excuse for was the one where he's supposed to be driving at the same time...). The very Dallas-esquire ending definitely messed with the movie and I think it would have most definitely faired better if it simply ended right then and there without continuing on past Charlie adding in the last lines of the script.
The Winter Guest (1997)
Beautiful.
Beautiful film, although they never quite tied up the four stories. It was fun to see Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law in the same movie, but it left me a little confused, with the two funeral ladies and Alex and Nita. Other than that, the film was beautifully shot, Alan Rickman has an eye for beautiful scenes, if nothing else the film was picturesque. The setting of Scotland in winter provided a beautiful backdrop, and the final scene with Sean Biggerstaff walking on the ice just was an amazing way to end the movie. Although the plot of the two women who go the funeral confused me, I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing there, besides adding length to the movie, the rest of the movie did mesh together very well. If you're looking for an artistically beautiful film, this is for you.