Change Your Image
mv-angel
Reviews
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Wait for it... read about it... appreciate
Read about the context. Check historical details. Appreciate the twist of the story. They enjoy the cinematography and craftsmanship of the team in the making.
Hint and potential spoilers:
Check Manson family. Enjoy the movie story.
By action this is way less then pulp fiction of other Tarantino movies. By depth of characters and storyteling: hmm perhaps more.
The good old question: if in 10 years you catch the movie on TV, would you sacrifice 2h of sleep to watch the end? My answer would be "Oh yeah!"
The Shadow Dancer (2005)
Interesting concept but just RIDICULOUS as details
The movie is indeed well acted, and there is such a strong emotional theme going on and chemistry between the "old" (Keitel) and the "young" (Jackson) writers. The storyline goes well, the tempo is just fine and it would have been an excellent movie if not for the ridiculous details that had to be inserted just to add some misunderstood credibility for image of Italy in some other parts of the world. Like all the town folks were driving fiat Toplino and Jackson arrived on a BMW Z4 model 2004. Or that there were no young people or kids in the village and there was only one scene where Forlani is talking to anybody else than people tree times her age. Come on, this is Italy! If anybody is that hot as Forlani, Jackson will have very hard time trying to get her attention. But this was tolerable, until the last scene where we see Jackson depart on a steam train! I guess such kind of trains do exist somewhere in the world, but in Italy, home of the "Pendolino" trains that travel 200+ km/h such transportations is long forgotten. I would have given 8 if not for those silly scenes...
Match Point (2005)
The vision in the eye of the beholder
I am in general quite hesitant to watch Woody Alan's movies. I find them too pretentious, snobbish and just too "american" to deal with. However, "Match point" was a different story. Unlike so many movie out recently, it has so MANY dimensions and story themes. Usually a movie is made by just one of the many dimensions reviewed to the eye of the beholder in the movie.
Let me try to quickly point our why I give it 10 out of 10 for this reason only (not to mention that the action was superb, carefully matching the story lines). 1. The traditional Greek tragedy story line. Just listen to the music, and read the definition from Aristotle who write that tragedy results in a catharsis (emotional cleansing) of healing for the audience through their experience of these emotions in response to the suffering of the characters in the drama. He considers it superior when a character passes from good fortune to bad rather than the reverse; at the time, the term "tragedy" was not yet fixed solely on stories with unhappy endings. Chris is such a classic example of a character that went from good fortune to bad and reverse so many time, accompanied splendidly by the music. 2. The cotinuous reference to luck and the "match point" theme. It was done in a splendid way so many times! 3. Love and lust theme. Or in other words the feelings we can live with and the feelings we need to live with! 4. Longivity! Chris could not create a live when he was not putting his mind into it. Or something else... But anyways, despite of the mechanical aspects of the act, he managed to create live when he did make love the women he cared about. Not only when he had to do it for the sake of making babies. 5. "Crime and punishment". No this is not Dostoevsky neither Shakespeare, even though we had our "Hamlet" moment, but it was clearly shown that no crime goes unpunished. The detective knew he was guilty. He was going to be sent to jail as he did use a well known weapon he could had access to. BUT we are shown, again in relation to the Greek tragedy theme, that like "Antigone", the moral values could be much harder than any punishment men could cause as our here is practically dead at the end of the movie. Yes he DID deserve to be send for life to jail, but the jail in his soul he is living in is much harder punishment that anything else could cause him... 6. Family values. Yes this is a family values movie. The father character is just great. Always supportive and almost flawless. Is Chris trying to be like this? We will never find out, as his future is doomed...
Happy to read your thoughts. Cheers. Mike
Lost: Live Together, Die Alone: Part 1 (2006)
My guess for the next season
What's the point of this messages if not to discuss and share thoughts about the next season... Here is my forecast: 1. The hatch was indeed blown, but somehow everybody inside survived. Buts lets see about that. 2. The episode at the end with the tent is an observation team monitoring the tracking device installed on Desmonds boat by Penny. Now that the magnetic shield around the island was lifted, the signal was picked up by the observation station and they are going to send a rescue mission. 3. After the destruction of the hatch, the island is not isolated any more, and other ships/airplanes are going to arrive 4. The others are finally going to share their secret with us poor observers
Was it actually confirmed that there are going to be 4 seasons of LOST?
Cheers Mike
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
A great movie indeed!
This is the first time I remember seeing a movie that was BETTER than the book! Yes indeed I will repeat my statement saying that the movie was better than the book. Here are my arguments:
1. The movie was straight to the point, while the book was too diluted with additional story lines and details. For example: the missing brother in the movie. Or the Mickey Mouse watch. It is completely irrelevant to the story. Some may say it is not like in the book, but such story line was not needed anyways 2. The movie achieved much better interpretation of the main story of the book: The the holy grail being the secret identity of Jesus and his family. Some may argue that imagination is more powerful than the real pictures and text used in the movie, but they were used in so good fashion that it is completely working for me. 3. The actors WERE good. I did not like initially Audrey Tautou but at the end somehow she was in place already. 4. The cinematography and screen play were splendid. There was not a single wasted moment or shot in the movie. The script was more punctual and precise than the book.
As a summary, what else do you need? You have good actors, great screenplay, great cinematography all bundled up in a highly enjoyable 149 minutes of non-stop entertainment. The reality of the facts presented in the story is not under discussion here, bus as a pure entertainment and adapted screen play, I have not actually seen a better one so far.
Enjoy Mike