Reviews

This movie is fantastic in so many ways. A brilliant story from dialogue to scenery to acting that focuses on the injustices done to the Hawaiians, through the main character Ko'olau and his family, by the newly formed government and what Hawaiians think about what is being done to them.

The director, who is from Hawai'i, also address, brilliantly I might add, what it is to be haole, which doesn't mean entirely being a white person. I think that was done so well. To the main characters, Westerners are seen as both villain and family (very similar to what it is like today). General McCabe the bounty hunter, who leads his mercenaries, is very much the villain and the type of haole Hawaiians despise. Ignorant, racist, and arrogant, he leads equally as ignorant mercenaries. Then there's Marshall Hitchcock, a locally born white person who is somewhere in the middle, neither good nor bad. He believes what he is doing is correct (forcing lepers to Molokai) regardless that he is conspiring with people who are enemy to the Hawaiians. Ko'olau who was once friends with him even challenges him on this. And then there's Eben Sinclair, a locally born white person, who is family to the main characters and does all he can, even risking his life, to help Ko'olau and his family. And the director brilliantly shows the strong bond between Hawaiians and this type of haole.

There's even dialogue between Ko'olau and his son on this issue of being haole. That the real haole isn't white, but the person with no 'breath' who is not in allegiance with the Hawaiians and their Queen and kingdom. A person that does not respect the laws and customs of Hawai'i and instead imposes their culture onto Hawaiians, including racism and classism, instead of adapting to their ways.

All this is done without the white savior complex we often see in films like this. These haoles are just kind of secondary characters. The director does this while still making Ko'olau the main character and hero, and he does it in a way that makes you focus mostly on Ko'olau and his family.

You walk away from the film angry about what those haoles did to Hawaiians, and understanding how to be good haole.

One hell of a film.

The movie is average. The story line pretty average, good for kids. But it shows in these comments how much people miss adventure treasure movies. All they make now are comic book hero movies.

People love National Treasure, Indiana Jones, King Solomon's Mines, The Mummy, the DaVinco Code. We miss those.

The movie is very true to the book and extremely well done. We all know George Lucas stole the ideas for Star Wars from Dune, but I didn't know how much until I saw the film: The Force/The Voice, Paul/Vadar, etc, etc.

However, I'm going to be honest and say Lucas, albeit a thief, modified it into a better story. Star Wars is just more intriguing and The Force is different than The Voice, it's more like a religion than a skill.

But Frank Herbert did an amazing thing considering he invented it all.

Definitely see the movie, it's quite good. But Star Wars beat them to the punch, so Dune hasn't moved me as much as Star Wars did.

At some point black artists and producers must understand that the image of the struggling black person in the ghetto trying to be a rapper or trying to get out of the ghetto because they are in a gang is so over done in America these days that there is no more room for another black exploitation film. The two worst movies of all time right now at IMDb both deal with this black/gangsta/rapper/basketball/hoodlum/fu ck the man attitude. This image fails for several reasons:

1) Filmmakers have already beat this to death. The best of these films like Boyz in the Hood, Do the Right Thing, Sweet Sweetback, Cooley High, even Breakin are now almost 20-40 years old. the ghetto is boring, old news, as contemporary as Tin Pan Alley.

2) Regardless of what most people think, white people are not turned off to the image of a story about a black person in the ghetto. the truth is most people,including many black people, are tired of the image of the hoodlum playing basketball, rapping, being in a gang, and being inner city. this is because civil rights was very successful and now people, black and white, see a large black middle class. so they know this doesn't really represent many black Americans anymore. when a movie ad comes across the TV screen advertising the new hip black movie about life in the streets, most people sigh and flip the channel. no originality, done before a million times over, not really even representative of many black people.

3) being a rapper in a gang and being from the streets doesn't carry the weight it did 20-30 years ago. now many people want to be from a safe, normal neighborhood. Black society has seen enough of crack epidemics and collapsing neighborhoods to want to celebrate gangsterism. the tide is turning against the black hoodlum image. Inner cities are being renovated and gentrified. black society is stabilizing.

Simply put, we as Americans have had enough of the black rapping ghetto. It's just not original anymore. Rap is becoming classic rock. Please come up with a new and original storyline like what black people are doing in suburbia and how they mingle with other ethnicities there. this hasn't been done yet, although it is now a huge part of the American lifestyle.

This show is so bad I watched it out of shock. Pathetic is all I can come up with. not one thing was remotely funny. The song about crapping in the toilet was something out of third grade. Actually, I think that's it. This is probably funny for third graders. Naughty poo poo jokes by grown men. Silly faces by adults. If you are over thirty laughing at this then you probably took the little yellow school bus to school, separate from the rest if us. Oh cat poo, now there's something funny. On top of it all, the filming and screening is at a college level. I can't believe this show shares the same stage as Family Guy. What were these people thinking? how do people like this get into media to begin with? skits that they probably put together in junior high school and somehow think it will still be funny? Please, just go away.

This was just weird. I don't know what else to say about it. not good, not bad. a strange plot line with decent acting. it is basically a fairytale put to film. very predictable, not as scary as it should be, the fairytale was kind of silly. thats all i an really say about it. maybe good for children or something. but i don't see an adult getting much out of it. the special effects were okay. it was just kind of plain, i think the writer wanted to say something profound but it just didn't make it. better off watching something else. plus, it is in PA which is a lame place. i don't know why this guy has to do everything in PA because we don't care about that place.

This was a phenomenal film. Storyline, acting, directing. The writers and directors approach a taboo in our culture with a unique lens not often seen in Hollywood. On one level I was sympathetic to the character, on another frightened for him, on another scared of him. Perhaps Bacon's best performance ever. Certainly better than The Mystic. This is really a real life horror film. Absolutely disturbing in every way. I suggest you watch this film to better understand pedophilia and even to a certain extent male sexuality. Kyra Sedgwicke was excellent as well, as was Mos Def. The deep psychological complexities of typical male sexuality gone haywire is what is being addressed. Makes you think.

I remember this show back in the eighties. It was 30 minutes of pure hell. Poor acting, below average story lines, terrible effects, and nothing more than mindless waste. This show is why people talk about the vast wasteland of television and how it rots peoples minds. to make it worse i had this neighbor that watched this show religiously and he would always tell me about each episode after he watched it. I hated 80s TV.

Fortunately, not many of these people are acting anymore. i particularly hated the father he reminded me of every below average white man and his crappy job and his stupid home in strip mall America

I make this statement for its realism. Most westerns, including The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, never really seem to capture what the Old West was really like. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was fantastic in terms of its film technique, but we never get to appreciate what it was like to be inside the Old West. Not only does this film do that, but it also delivers the quintessential Eastwood as the great gunslinger. What I liked about this film was how an excellent story line easily integrated with heroism antics (the ending scene) and top notch acting by everyone in the film, as well as showing us what the Old West REALLY was like... hardly romantic, but dirty, filthy, and full of people living on the edge of society. People constantly facing off against the elements of nature and societies barely on the map, societies that as of yet could hardly offer infrastructure and social equity. what we get is a stark and shocking portrayal of people forced into a situation of natural selection or the survival of the fittest, which is what historians are saying the Old West was really like. Neighbor against neighbor as people, without the resources of the city, fight daily to stay alive. We see what happens when we are stripped of our resources, and how the 'stink' of the human character really shines. Eastwood and Hackman's greatest performances.

This movie, when first watched by people from my generation (Gen X), doesn't seem to be very coherent. Something strange and psychedelic from a weird era. However, if you watch this movie and then watch How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass, which is a movie about making Sweet Sweetback, you'll see why this was so damn revolutionary. This was the first time Black America told White America on screen that the days of "kissing up to Shirley Temple's ass" were over. It was a political movie about Black America and even Minority America being tired of whiteness, as well as stating that Black America now has its own identity and society. It took some pretty strong courage to make this move when you consider the time frame that it came out in; the early seventies, a period that saw a shift from "I have a dream" to "By any means necessary." I believe this film opened the doors to allow black artistic media to be critical about white America, society, politics and corruption that generally would have been censored before. Sometimes I wonder if this helped pave the way for people like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and even Dave Chapelle. My father, a white man, told me that when he went to see this film back in 1971, the audience screamed and cheered during the opening scene when across the screen it read to "all the Brothers and Sisters who are tired of being held down by the Man." Nowadays people wouldn't really respond to that, not even black society I don't think, but back then it could have gotten you lynched, even in 1971. So when people screamed and cheered in the movie theater when they saw this, I think you can imagine how important a film like this must be in film history. No minority had ever dared to say that on the silver screen before.

I thought Moore's Bowling for Columbine was brilliant, but Fahrenehit 9/11 was a little too much propaganda (although he hit some heavy notes such as the failure of the media, corporate irresponsibility and class-ism) for me. This movie, however, is more of a far-right conservatives response to intellectuals' claims against right-wingism. What has been happening, particularly most recently, is that academics and others such as liberals have been holding up a mirror to conservative America and conservative America doesn't like what they see, so they try to shift the blame on liberalism by screaming anti-patriotism. I don't think Moore hates America, I think he hates corruption. I remember at the end of Bowling for Columbine he said something along the lines, "I think as Americans we're better than that" regarding gun violence. I don't think this man hates America, he just doesn't roll himself in the flag before he goes to sleep every night. Criticism against a government or politician doesn't constitute anti-patriotism or hatred for one's country, except in fascism. This movie simply set out to hate liberals and charge them for anti-Americanism instead of presenting issues logically and coherently. What is most unique is that when I voted on this movie, the most votes were 10s and 1s. Something like 36% said 10 and 39% said 1, with small percentages in between. More polarization adding to the continual decline of the United States.

I was irritated to see Sean Penn beat out Bill Murray for the Oscar. This was far from a bad movie, but not nearly as good as it is reported to be. The movie was well written, had decent acting, but I could see from the beginning where it was going and largely how it would end. My belief is that Americans love murder and violence, or at least love to see it and read about it. That's why we have so much of it in the news, it makes for good entertainment. A soft, warm-hearted film like Lost in Translation will never be considered better next to murder and dementia, regardless of the fact that Bill Murray's performance was better than Sean Penn's. Bill Murray's performance was better because 1) much of it was ad-libbed 2)it was equally as dramatic as Penn's performance, just without the violence, dementia, and mental disease Americans love to see delivered. Murray got robbed.

I saw this show on reruns when I was living in this horrible part of Japan and all I had of the outside world was TV. More 20 something relationship crap, with 20 year-olds living in apartments in NYC that doctors can hardly afford. I was actually embarrassed to watch this show because it was so lame. I just kept wondering how the hell these people could afford to live like they could in NYC, without their parents money. It was basically the tale of wimpy, spoiled and out-of-touch white people and the unrealistic lives they live with bad script writing. The acting was decent but these people were so boring and unrealistic it was pathetic. The trials of east coast wealthy white people. I bet people who like this like Mad About You and Everybody Loves Raymond and other boring crap.

This show wasn't done in poor taste, but it gave the impression that black America in the late sixties was just like regular America and they had all the equalities and opportunities as everyone else. This show was just off base and not realistic. Black society was fighting tooth and nail for equality back then, and this show never represented that. Instead we see a patriotic black woman and her nice son living the American dream. This just wasn't a reality for black folks then. It painted the picture of the sweet and innocent Julia the way white America wanted to see black society. It wouldn't be until shows like All in the Family, Good Times, and The Jeffersons did reality TV come to life.

American television can be divided into pre-All in the Family and post-All in the Family. Before this show, TV was kind of simple in nature, painted a rosy and often unrealistic picture of the world and America, and was never really used as a medium for social inquiry. Then this show came along and blew everything out of the water. More doors were opened by this show than any other show in history. Once taboo topics such as Vietnam, homosexuality, and women's rights were openly being debated. This is hard for younger audiences to understand, but there was a time when these things simply weren't discussed outside of academic circles. Before, this was never done except in inner academic circles. All in the Family was, and still is today, the lens to examine the American national character.

This show also cemented the growing belief in America that things were changing in the Americana. It wasn't the Fifties anymore. Times were different and more complicated and seemed to be staying that way. This was very hard for a lot of Americans to handle, particularly Archie Bunker's generation, the WWII veterans. The Sixties are over, but they have changed who we are as Americans to this day.

We will never see a show like this in American television again. It is the show that set the standard for all other TV shows and the comedy is still as funny today as it was then. This show was the dividing line that changed television from a flaky past time into a respected art form, and showed America that we are, and continue to be, an evolving nation.

This was what black society was like before the crack epidemics, gangsta rap, and AIDS that beset the ghettos in the eighties. Decent, hardworking families that struggled to get by and all the traumas and tribulations they faced. Black America was a different group of people in the seventies. Still full of hope and flying high on the civil rights movements of the sixties, times were hard but still worth fighting for. Keepin' your head above water, making a wave when you can, this show showed how black society struggled to work together as people and families, before they started to prey on each other and everyone else in order to survive the horrors of the ghettos. It is heart-breaking to see what the black ghettos were like then and what they have become now.

It doesn't get funnier than this show, particularly the early episodes. An integration of intense drama and bone numbing humor, MASH is one of a handful of gems that came out of the seventies, when sitcoms were mastered. Larry Linville, God rest his soul, does such an excellent job at Frank Burns he has become one of my favorite comedians of all time. the early episodes in particular seemed to be full of wit. An entire series dedicated to making fun of people like Frank Burns. One line burners and vibrant personalities made this show so funny I would tape them on the old Betamax so I could see them over and over. They don't make them like this anymore. Now we are suffocated with mindless crap like Everybody loves that Jerk Raymond, Mad About You, Malcolm in the Middle, Friends and other stupid shows for stupid people. I miss the seventies. Bring back MASH, Good Times, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Taxi, shows that integrated substance and humor and made you proud to be living in America.

I was shocked to see this film get such an average rating as it did. The producers of this film, whomever they are, have done a wonderful job on several levels. First, we get to see how rich and historic surfing is. The visual imagery, fantastic use of old footage, and excellent soundtrack make for a wonderful set-up. This is a really nice change from the terrible and negative impression surfers get from commercialism and mainstream Hollywood. We get to see the humanism of surfers in people like Rabbit Kekai, Fred van Dyke, Anona Napoleon and Shay Bintliff. The film goes in depth into the lives and accomplishments of these extraordinary people, from surfing's resurgence in the early part of the twentieth century into the present; how these people helped modify and shape this sport of royalty, and proving surfing is not some dimwitted lifestyle for stoned losers (not once did I hear 'dude' or 'gnarly'), but a lifestyle that is paramount to many others.

Secondly, we get to see how these people have been able to use the healing powers of the ocean and the thrill and playfulness of surfing to facilitate their aging process. This can best be seen through the vibrant character Woody Brown, who pioneered everything from surfboards to catamarans.

All in all, this is a very personal and heartfelt tribute to the great sport and lifestyle of surfing. To the producers, wherever you are, MAHALO for such an artistic portrayal of surfing and MAHALO for helping to eliminate the foolish and unfounded notion that surfers are pot smoking losers (I have bee surfing for years, met hundreds of surfers, and 99% of the time they have steady, often high-paying careers, and just love this great sport of ours), but are instead exciting, creative, intelligent, vibrant people with a strong connection to the ocean and to nature.

'Come ride the waves, the surf is high, and hear the song the surfers cry. Slide out on the shoulder and finish the ride, Your heart's on fire, your soul's filled with pride. Taste the salt, the stinging spray. Know the price a surfer must pay.' -- Woody Brown

Although we all knew how it was going to end, the drama that leads up to Skywalker's transformation is tremendously passionate and powerfully acted on-screen. The movie has the philosophical undertones of A New Hope, as well as Shakspearian drama and Eastern mysticism. Most importantly, the viewer develops compassion for Vadar as we begin to see that his descent into the dark side is a result of his violent, unfortunate and sad past, and his tremendous love for Padme. As Yoda explains, it is through the fear of loss that we unintentionally walk the dark path, and this is what becomes of Annakin Skywalker. His love and compassion for Padme, and his fear of losing her the way he lost his mother, forces him to protect her by any means and ultimately leading to his own demise. In a Romeo and Juliet twist, all is lost.

Lucas' Star Wars saga is one of the greatest in human history. It is every bit as good as Oedipus Rex, anything Shakespeare did, and will be remembered as the finest story ever told on screen. I am simply in awe of what he created over the last 30 years.

The director is trying to integrate Eastern spiritualism and marijuana use with surfing. Not long into the movie it starts to smell of patuoli oil. the surfers are really good and seem kind of normal, but the narrator keeps going off on this strange tangent about surfing being deeply mystical, non-materialistic, and a nomadic, off the grid way of life. Which it may be for very few people, to others it isn't. either way it doesn't depict what the contemporary status of surfing is like, only what the director would like to see it as. I also heard rumors that the surfers and the director really didn't get along well (hence the reason for the one surfer taking off and only leaving a note). The part where Steven Slater talks about how he would like to get a job because he has never had one is reminiscent of Spicoli and really casts surfers in a bad light. Most surfers are professionals with white collar jobs. I also was told that the female Roxy model surfer sued the director to prevent him from using nude shoots of her in the film. Finally, the last thing I was told was that the director had a tiff with one of the surfers over the girl. Perhaps this is why he cast the surfers in the film in such a bad light. all in all, it was kind of a ridiculous movie. I saw this film at La Paloma in Encinitas, where I used to regularly surf Cardiff before I moved away to the South Pacific.

Maverick's: A Documentary Film follows the discovery of Maverick's in the early 1990s, who the original riders are, and how they feel about riding the largest monster in the world. Although the footage is amazing, what really makes the movie unique are the interviews with the original riders of Maverick's. Any surfer who has ever been taken down by a 5 footer, a 10 footer, or a 40 footer will be on edge throughout a lot of this film. The stories they have, directly from the riders of Maverick's mouths, will haunt you. There were several moments during the film where I was panic stricken. Although I have never ridden anything above 7 feet, and have never been out in anything above 10 feet, I have still had a few scary take down moments (for me anyway), and Maverick's: A Documentary Film puts every surfer in the seat of what it would feel like to be put down by an ice cold 40 footer. Jay Moriarty's famed wipeout is particularly a good story, as is the death of poor Mark Foo. If The Endless Summer is Huckleberry Finn, Maverick's: A Documentary Film is Rocky.

This is a genuine work of brilliance. At every possible level this movie succeeds--acting, script, originality. the only possible way it could have been better was to have a cameo by Bill Murray. Thats all I can think of. From the very beginning go the very end, every little detail was perfectly flawless. rock and roll of the late 70's and early 80's needed this. this is what becomes of most rock singers who started off in a garage band and decided to succeed or die. these guys failed. the life of a failed rock band. damn thats funny. why didn't i think of this? huh? huh? if i were to get into comedy this is how'd i do it. it makes my high school career look as ridiculous as it really was.

Simply put, if you weren't there, you'll have more fun reading Sister Carrie. As Jerry said, "God we make sh***y albums." You really had to have seen and done it for it to be of any interest (and that's what is strange about the Dead legacy. It will be forever gone when the last person to have ever been to a show finally passes on). This was the last show at Winterland before the Dead broke up (the first time) and before Garcia started using hard drugs. It really captures the weirdness though. I don't know, people keep telling me they went to shows for the music and to see Jerry Garcia, but for me those extravaganzas were like a nice, evening stroll through a Turkish bazaar on Mars. Stone cold, unadulterated, pure weirdness. It was pure weirdness in all its form, weirdness as a force of nature and not something trivial and silly. When the Dead rolled through town, the real weirdos came out of the woodwork for a giant celebration of strangeness. "When the going gets weird..."

I know because I knew a mob guy. This is Hollywood's glorification of the worst possible life to choose. Phenomenal acting, but the life of a mob guy is violent and depraved (and often broke). The most realistic mob movie I have ever seen is Donnie Brasco. This is what mob life is really like. Mob life is about a million miles from being romantic. Carlito's Way is another realistic (more or less) look at street crime life. you watch this movie for the phenomenal acting, not for realism in any way. Hollywood loves to capitalize off stories of gangsters, glorify it up a bit, and package it as if it were real. What's real is busting your hump, not making enough in a month so you have to sell dope, and wondering if there is a gun at your head every second of the day. to be honest, I'd rather sell staplers.