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giordana_01
Reviews
The Nutcracker Prince (1990)
A "Nutcracker" for people who don't get the Nutcracker.
Between school field trips and TV performances (my parents were big PBS fans), I've seen "The Nutcracker" several times, but I've never understood it. Why is that girl so happy to get a nutcracker; does she eat a lot of nuts? Where did the giant mice come from? Why is that woman trying to smuggle children under her skirt (and why doesn't anyone seem concerned about that)?
I came across this video during a babysitting gig. It looked harmless enough. I watched it while the kid slept.
The movie is awful; bad music, stilted dialogue, bad animation. Still, by the end, I understood the basic plot of The Nutcracker, something that had eluded me for years. I recommend it for that reason alone.
Shock Treatment (1981)
Ahead of its time
I've seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show live and on TV, but I was never a fan. My husband, a big RHPS fan, found a Shock Treatment DVD (the 25th Anniversary edition) in the video store bargain bin. He convinced me to watch it. I wasn't expecting to like it, but I did.
First of all, Shock Treatment is NOT a RHPS sequel. Some of the actors and characters are the same, but the storyline is completely different. RHPS was a satire about cheap, Z-grade horror films. Shock Treatment is a satire about fame and celebrity. Brad and Janet Majors are now married and unhappy. They go on a TV show hoping to save their marriage, and end up trapped. Fame turns from nectar to poison, and nothing is quite what it seems.
The musical sequences are the best part, especially "Denton USA," Lullaby", "Looking for Trade," and "Look What I Did to my Id." Aside from being infectiously good, they let the viewer trace Janet's journey from concerned wife to celebrity and back. The movie is remarkably clean; the only real titillation is in "Lullaby."
Shock Treatment was ahead of its time. Reality TV didn't exist in 1981. Now, anyone can become a celebrity by exposing their personal lives to the small screen. In 1981, Kate and Jon Gosselin would have been 2 people with a lot of kids, not celebrities.
If you're expecting a sequel to RHPS, you will be disappointed. If you're puzzled by Reality TV "stars", you're a fan of rock musicals, or you go in with an open mind, you could find yourself loving Shock Treatment.
The Pianist (2002)
Yet Another Holocaust Movie
I left "Schindler's List" haunted. I left "Life is Beautiful" incredibly sad. I left "The Pianist" bored and very, very sleepy.
I'm not saying the Holocaust isn't a worthy movie subject, but it's all been done before, and much better. There's not much to care about in "The Pianist". As told here, Vladek Szpielman's story isn't especially compelling or interesting. He survives the deprivation of the Warsaw ghetto, goes into hiding, endures more deprivation, then plays piano again. The end.
Szpielman seems strangely unaffected by the horror unfolding around him. He witnesses various atrocities, sees his family get deported, and watches 2 executions and a cremation, yet his facial expression never changes. He goes from starving before liberation to playing the piano on the radio afterward, with no explanation of what happened in between. And why does a man in hiding pull aside the curtains to watch a shooting outside?
I'm not afraid of a film where most of the action is internal (like "The Hours"), but this film has almost none of that. We get no clues about what Szpielman thinks or how he feels about anything. "Schindler's List" and "Life is Beautiful" convey the horrors of he Holocaust much more effectively, including their effect on the survivors. "The Diary of Anne Frank" tells a much better story about life in hiding.
To those who say Holocaust movies are needed as long as there are Holocause deniers, I can only say this; there literally hundreds of Holocaust movies out there. If a small number of people are still denying the existence of the Holocaust, making another 100 movies isn't going to convince them.