Reviews

Svankmajer impresses as always. His movies are always beautiful, disturbing, and wonderful. The acting ensemble is also impressive..and I cannot imagine a better actor to play the Marquis de Sade. My one criticism, though, is a big one:

The story...there's already a much better version of this story. It's "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade". ( Peter Weiss' play from 1963).

Now - I assume Svankmajer is aware of Weiss's play, but maybe he isn't? I don't know. I did highly enjoy Svankmajer's movie.

Part of me thinks he should have just done Weiss's play.

My wife and I watch a ton of horror films and this one stood out as cool and unique.

It's less "horror" than just plain weird Lovecraftian craziness. Maybe not for everyone, but we appreciated that they were doing something different. It combines a compelling deadbeat Dad making good with his-daughter relationship with lots of bizarre happenings.

Plus, it's got Matt Frewer (from Max Headroom). Can't beat that. If you liked Max Headroom, you'll probably like this - it's got a similar unique flair.

SPOILERS The bad: 1. Formulaic: Abrams took familiar characters/plots/and scenes and repurposed them into a new Star Wars TM product. (and another Death Star, really?) 2. Feminist Vapidism: The new female lead is perplexingly better than every male in the film, whether it's teaching herself the force (Luke took 2 movies worth of training), beating a Sith Lord in a light saber battle on her first day as a Jedi, being a better star pilot than Han Solo, or more knowledgeable engineer than Chewbacca; all skills that she somehow acquired as a scavenger on the desert planet Tatooine? Huh? 3. Civilization is Blown Up, No One Cares: the new "First Order" starkiller blows up no less than 5 planets representing the Republic (apparently they learned nothing from Alderan), and the characters barely care. Meanwhile, the Republic doesn't have an army? 4. Nothing says originality like the Nazis: the "First Order" is based on the Nazis. Yawn.

5. We could have had acting: but instead Han and Leia get to talk mostly about their idiot son and the dumb plot.

The Good: 1. The backgrounds/visuals/landscapes: are beautiful. One department did its job.

2. The formula: Lots of lasers, lightsabers, explosions, aliens. If that's all you want in a Star Wars movie, than it's a success.

3. It's fast-paced: Lots of action: better than the soap-opera of the Prequels. That said, Abrams probably can't do dialogue.

Quite a fun movie - rather silly in the tradition of "Bringing Up Baby", but a delightful gem for people who have a sense of humor. This movie is less about action and more about gunmen playing a constant mental game of wits trying to fool and outsmart each other. Fastest hands or not, you quickly see that it's Billy's wits that keep him alive, and Jack Buetel does a fantastic job of portraying a Billy the Kid that-could-have-been. It's also a buddy movie with friendship and camaraderie: the central conflict comes about when Doc Holiday takes to Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett feels cast aside, and it's interesting to watch the changing dynamics and friendship and respect even among those trying to kill each other.

The good - 1. no CGI - all the crashes are real, refreshing break from crappy digital effects action movies. 2. The plot - starts out strong, setting up a mysterious voice & mysterious plan, but as it progress it doesn't quite deliver (I can imagine much more interesting directions the story could have gone). 3. Selena Gomez is cute - she can be my road buddy. The average: 1. Ethan Hawke is mostly convincing in his role, although his performance is a bit reminiscent to me of his performance in "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead", I also think in real life the character wouldn't have been so cool under pressure. 2. The dialogue is nothing special, and they don't develop the characters beyond the bare minimum needed for the plot. The bad: 1. it's essentially a long car chase movie - it's cool for awhile, but eventually gets boring. 2. a lot of "no way" scenes where it's hard to suspend belief. Overall, though I must say I did enjoy it.