Change Your Image
jjcalzada
Reviews
Nelly's Folly (1961)
Yes, you can find 'Nelly' on DVD...!!!
For those of us who are die-hard fans of this delightful and politically incorrect cartoon (Nelly desecrates an American home an then attempts to commit suicide) here's the DVD where you can find it at last: 'Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - 15 Winners, 26 Nominees', along with some other -almost- forgotten gems, such as 'The High Note', 'The Dot and the Line' and the chilling 'Peace on Earth'. Most of the transfers are OK, yet some suffer from technical problems like the use of non-anamorphic widescreen for a few cartoons filmed in Cinemascope, even if the box says they are anamorphic transfers (!). The collection covers the years from 1940 to 1965.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Mmmhh... thanks, but no.
Vacuous, pretentious and annoyingly predictable. You can tell how and when this movie is going to end looong before the end actually comes. What in the world possessed Marc Forster to direct this? Was he in such a big need to make another film to lose his marbles on such a purposeless story? I can hardly believe it's the same director who gave us 'Finding Neverland' and 'Monster's Ball'. Quite puzzling too are the awards and nominations this movie received.
To top it all, Will Ferrel just can't play dramatic roles... but is this a drama? I guess Marc Forster and Zach Helm just invented a new genre: the 'feelgood' artsy film. I only wish I'd spent fictitious money on it.
Ensayo de un crimen (1955)
Not all that glitters in Buñuel is gold
Adapted from a mediocre novel by Mexican playwright Rodolfo Usigli (gladly the only one he wrote) "Ensayo de un Crimen" gathers several of the worst cinematographic moments issued from such an uneven filmmaker as Luis Buñuel. Its many clumsy aspects are generously distributed on all areas of its making: there is not a single actor that can deliver his/her lines without sounding like your average end-of-semester College play. The scenery and decor are elementary and full of anachronisms. To mention just one, in the initial flashback Archibaldo (as a young child) is playing in the 20's with a Lionel train from the 40-50's! Buñuel's directing job is plainly bad, even if he tries to embellish it with a couple of his famous "oniric" sequences that just don't work here.
Maybe the worst part of all is the script. There's not a single line that doesn't sound corny and forced. Here's to those who watched the film with the benefit of translated subtitles or dubbed into a foreign language: I envy you. In Spanish, the dialogs are plainly awful.
However, the most remarkable feature is the enormous amount of praise this unholy stinker has received during its 50 years of existence! Undoubtedly this shows that to most moviegoers and critics -moviegoers of the Summa cum Laude species, I guess- suppose that the sole name of a famous filmmaker must mean you're watching a work of art.
To this I must add that practically none of the movies that Buñuel filmed during his stay in Mexico is a true masterpiece. Even the celebrated "Los Olvidados" is sadly marred by an unabashed pamphlet scene extolling the social merits of the Juvenile Delinquent re-adaptation centers issued from the government of President Cárdenas. Maybe Buñuel considered necessary giving a little lick to the hand that was feeding him at the moment...
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
An odd mixture of theology and nonsense
Like a mixture of The World of Beakman and Scooby Doo, with a History Channel documentary thrown in for good measure. Audrey Tatou, Tom Hanks and Sir Ian McKellen are completely wasted. Jean Reno plays his usual role of the though guy law (of God) enforcer, and Paul Bettany keeps fighting against a pair of cheap contact lenses. The characters pursue planted clues as if they were on a crazy car rally in what may be the longest night in the history of movies -since it begins in a conference hall and ends (in what feels like ages later) somewhere in the French countryside discussing theological issues. In one of the final sequences you see a group of men entering a medieval church... and once inside, some of them turn into women! Nice locations, though - that accounts for the 2 stars vote. To be watched on a rainy Wednesday when a good book is not available.