Change Your Image
BenjaminPalmer
Reviews
The Departed (2006)
Good, but not as good as original.
Simple. Infernal Affairs(the film that this was adapted from) does a better job executing the story in 90 minutes then this does in 150. The screenwriters/adapters(which i believe Paul haggis might be involved) felt that inserting the word "f-u-c-k" about 750 times provided realism. In fact all it did was make the dialog more ridiculous. Infernal affairs stuck to its through-lines, whereas in this film the through-lines are more like short outbursts that are supposed to make you go "ohhhhh i got it now". Do not get me wrong, Jack, Leo, and Mark have exquisite performances. But Andy Lau's performance in Infernal Affairs blows Matt Damon's out of the water. The adaptation to Boston is good, the performances are good, the direction is good, but it is not great. And that is what one must look at when rating film.
Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991)
Powerful Performances, Realistic dialog, Looked Staged.
I have seen at least 450 films from the "Urban" genre, and I have to say I am always perplexed by this film. If you are someone who is fussy about the aesthetics and the technical aspects of a film, you do not want to see this film. However, if you are looking for a film with strong performances by black actors, or a film with a look at life in the projects, this is the film for you. I think sometimes when we talk about project life we imagine a certain picture or image. This film deals a lot more with the mindsets of people in the projects. The most powerful performance is by George T. Odom, whose monologues and multi-personalities combine for a great example of a struggling black man. Larry Gillard Jr. is also in this film(the man who played D'Angelo Barksdale in HBO's The Wire) and he delivers a relatively impressive performance as a ordinary kid in the projects. Overall this is an impressive film with no budget. The one thing you need to be warned about is at times it is so low budget it will sometimes look as it was scenes from staged plays. I also wish the supporting cast was made up of better actors. I like this film, enough that i look at scenes from it once and a while when I myself am studying character archetypes.
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
A Commentary to Remember
This film is one of the greatest comments on society to remember. I read a review of someone saying how this film does not express the liberty that Kieslowski states this film addresses. This is in part because this film is a negative comment on french society. Julie searches and searches for a way to liberate herself from society, however she fails to achieve her liberty because she realizes that without society she is nothing. Liberty is just a ideal that is impossible to achieve, but we try to reach it for the better of ourselves. Kieslowski did an amazing job on this film, creating the most stunning images. This film should be viewed on a quality sound system, turned all the way up so one can grasp how the music is a whole different story itself. I love this film dearly, and this is one of the greatest films of the 90s.